Total Fantasy
by vidGAMEinggod
Summary: Eric Shroud and Sarah Termingham. For the most part, normal. From our world, yours and mine, with nothing out of the ordinary. But when mysterious sunglasses appear, given by a midnight visitor, a normal life is turned upside-down. Finished!
1. Introduction to Eric Chapter I, Act ...

This is my story. Property of vidGAMEinggod. Star Fox and all related characters are property of Nintendo. Krystal is property Rare. All other small references are property of their respective owners. 

Chapter I:

  
Eric Shroud. The very name brought fame and fortune among the local science teachers along with pity at how he somehow came to school every day with at least one new cut, many of which became scars. He himself thought he didn't have that much physical strength, although constant running did something to strengthen his physique.

Literally an intellectual hermit, Eric often suffered for not giving some random answer to a homework problem. Suffer as in physical scars. He had a job hiding them from everyone, and it was no surprise that every single free time he could be found on the highest-quality, most remote computer in the classroom. His brainpower exceeded most of his peers, something which he was not proud of. Stupidity gives friends!

With his chosen exile, each day he slipped deeper and deeper into an inferiority complex that ensnared his senses. Seeing as he had maybe two, three people he could truly count on, almost no one knew truly what he was thinking. If you thought that was good enough for the local street gangs, you were wrong; they found him extraordinarily easy prey, the only work was actually catching him. Which is where Eric found himself at this very moment.

Racing through the down-pouring rain, the impenetrable fog caught Eric's already-bad eyesight and hearing and threw them down the shitter. All Eric saw was a mist, all Eric heard was the off-key percussion of someone spending too much time using all of his force on the drums. The only thing keeping him going was pure adrenaline; otherwise his all-nighter at the local arcade would have felled him long before now.

Put bluntly: The suburbs Eric lived on in his backwater Las Angeles town were criminal-ridden and sucked hell. People with brain cells were in the horrible, oppressed minority, and those with the ability to keep them hidden and blend in were among the unique. Somewhere in Eric's subconscious, there was the urge to become a hero, but in real life - hell, a snowball will survive in hell before a 14-year-old mechanical genius makes it anywhere.

Eric sprinted as fast as his scrawny legs would carry him. Which was pretty fast, seeing as he was a virtual giant in height, a staggering 6'1''. Eric found this to be yet another curse as he could never hide; he was too big. Didn't help that we was freezing his ass off, no coat + lots of rain = one unhappy camper. He could hear the calls of the gangsters, surrounding him like a pack of ravening, intelligent wolves. Rapier wit was little use to people with biceps the size of your head. Maybe rapier wit that comes with a real rapier…

No time… two with lead pipes were blocking the exit in front of him of the street he was at, and the buildings were so close together it was simply mind-boggling. Got to get out of here… Eric's clothes were hopelessly matted down by the pouring rain and his legs were like fortified lead, only with less durability.

Come on, come on… one block to go… The mobsters were gaining… twenty feet distance… fifteen… A mighty lunge and the sound of the back of Eric's shirt ripping signified they were close, thinking they got him they stood back. When blood wasn't flooding the streets they continued the chase like a well-organized band of sharks. A leap and a bound and Eric made it to the safety of his doorstep, locking the door at warp speed. Thank god for reinforced windows. Peering through the curtain, they proceeded to circle the building like vultures for their prey before slipping, one by one, into the night.

Eric stood there panting for a long time before finally gathering the strength to melancholically stumble to the kitchen for the refrigerator. One deep swig from his dad's whiskey bottle instantly both brought him to his senses and caused a large amount of vomit to begin staining the linoleum. Cursing, Eric got a towel and began cleaning it up. Eric had a pretty decent home life, but his parent's jobs (his dad was a neuro-opthamologist, his mom a lawyer specializing in federal law courses), despite bringing paychecks the size of Arkansas. Eric never considered himself spoiled; his social life sucked far too much for that.

Walking upstairs to the attic that, at Eric's request, had been turned into the Video Game Central of the house, Eric sunk into a virtual stupor so high he couldn't leave the chair. It was also his bedroom, and where he felt most comfortable. The Virtual World also seemed to make much more sense than real life- people don't die, or if they do, they come back to life and the words "Game Over" are only a temporary setback. Whereas in real life, death is permanent, pain HURTS and the hero - if you can call the people who plunder and pillage causing widespread misery heroes - never get the girl. Whoever came up with such a cruel reality needs an ass punch.

After exhaustion and a slight drunken high gave Eric's pride another smacketh-down, he comforted himself by staring at the (incredibly) numerous posters of various movies and video games sprawled around the poster. After staring for a good 20 minutes at his StarFox Adventures poster hanging on the ceiling above his bed, and a pathetic Gollum impression later, Eric stumbled to the bathroom to take his contacts out and wonder what the hell he did to deserve all of this.

There was no god! Or if there was one, he certainly must think Eric his piss-boy or something to be wrought with such misfortune. Eric never referred to god; he always was talking about Destiny (a benevolent, intangible being bringing subtle fortune) or Fate (the malevolent counterpart) and Luck (something Eric had a lot of but focused so much on the negative that he didn't realize it). After tripping down the stairs blindly without a visual aid (he realized he hadn't eaten anything) he could still hear the shrieks of the creatures outside, missing a fresh kill.

Downing a glass of eggnog and a tuna-fish sandwich, Eric trotted back to his room. Staring at all of the paraphernalia in the room (every console EVER, a PC hooked up to his parent's PC and even an arcade machine or two, plus enough extension cords to choke someone with) he couldn't help but feel grateful. At least he had a retreat from the cesspit of reality. Unfortunately, he would soon learn to have to hide from more than just reality…


	2. Hellish Nightmare Chapter II

Chapter II

Eric trudged through his virtual wonderland, losing himself in the total fantasy offered by an unreal world. Two hours later, the hunger pangs were hitting a level again and he was bored out of his skull. Going downstairs, he munched on some cereal before going back upstairs to get his contacts off and go to bed finally. By the time his contacts were out, it was 2:30 in the morning and Eric was so tired it was all he could do to keep walking. Tripping on his own feet, he thanked Destiny for the soundproof doors his dad had installed after being woken up one too many times by a victory dance.

      Tiptoeing into his room by way of habit, he moved his covers up and tried to get to sleep. He could still hear whatever gang that had tried to kill him the few hours ago out there yelling. New York City isn't the only never-sleeping urban land…

       Sheer exhaustion dropped him not five minutes after his head touched the pillow. Spinning through endless nightmares, he landed on one that had the haunting ability to cause him to awake, screaming.

      He felt, on his back, not his rather cozy bed but a rather comfortless snooze-box of sharp, pointy rocks. Getting up, a dinosaur-istic creature was sprawled on the ground, burn wound in the head. Eric ached in the stomach, and looking at himself he realized he was not in his usual garb. A blackish cloak or a leather vest… he couldn't tell. A hood was on his head with what seemed like an empty scabbard on his back, and he felt gun holsters inside the leatherish vest. A battle was raging around him, like it was every time…

      On both sides, there were beings that looked like they were four-fifths human, one fifth another animal. Furries, Eric would call them. Or would, if he was in a better situation. Some of the reptilian creatures were with clubs on the side of a group of the furriess, of which were much more diverse. Bears, wolves, lizards… on the other side it just looked to be cats, foxes, and other species of dogs.

      Shrapnel of whatever energy explosives were rocking his world. Diving beside a rock, he searched around desperately for a way out. He never was able to wake up from this, not until later…

      One of the scaly lizard furries was ripping the throat out of a now-dead St. Bernard soldier, basking in the glory of savage gluttony. Grabbing a rock off of the battle-scarred ground, Eric hugged the ground as he leapt for the dinosaur. Bringing it down on the creature's head, green blood spewed from the back of its cranium. Diving back to his hiding place, the two armies rolled into each other and the shudder rocked Eric's world. Trying to flee, he looked into the sky and noticed a sky battle going on above him. Several different ships were duking it out in a heated dogfight as Eric scrambled to safer ground.

      Out of nowhere, a bomb, fired from some ship or another, took out an engine and both wings of one of the ships flying sky-high. Shrapnel fell around Eric, who took two shards and jumped behind a burned tree for safety. Peering around the tree, the ship that had gotten hit was now flying straight at him! At point blank range, connection was inevitable.

      Eric could only do so much as turn and run before being cut down by the metallic bird. He managed to catch a glimpse of a fox-like furry before being struck, knocked out of this reality and into his own.

      "Gaah!" Eric cried out upon awakening. Half of his bed was soaked in an icy sweat. Shoving the covers away from him, he staggered out of bed and almost tripped over his computer table. Feeling his way to the bathroom, he managed to find his contact lenses and squeeze them back in.

      Adrenaline coursing through his body, he was barely able stop himself from poking his eyes out with his jittery hands. Finally done, he tromped downstairs. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon, but still not enough to be considered sunrise. He didn't really feel like eating anything, so after several minutes of wandering aimlessly through the house he finally went back upstairs to sleep for another hour or so.

      Getting under the covers, he stared at the many game paraphernalia throughout his room. Twisting and turning to avoid the cold sweat puddle, he tried to escape on the side closest to the wall. No sale. Rolling to the part far away from the wall, he squirmed too far.

      He fell off of the bed, cracking his skull on the corner of his dresser. He heard a snap like something breaking before sliding off of the bed, a blood haze clouding his view as he relapsed into unconsciousness.


	3. Midnight Visitor Chapter III

Chapter III  
  


  
     Sitting there as his room disappeared from view like a pancake with whipped cream going down his dad's throat, he wasn't quite sure if everything he was seeing was a blood-red hallucination or whether he was just sitting there in a pained haze. Sitting there, something odd happened. Right now, Eric thought it was just a dream but as you, the reader, will soon find out…

      It wasn't.

      Sitting there on the floor, warm blood slowly beginning to cover his back, a hooded figure walked into the room. He/she/it must have been at least five foot ten, and in a dark black robe which obscured his hands.  Standing over Eric, he reached into a dark corner of his cloakish garb and pulled out a dark black pair of mirrorshades. Eric didn't know what this visitor was, but he bet he would look cool in those sunglasses!

      Stooping over Eric's lifeless, unconscious wreck of a body, he placed the sunglasses onto the dresser. Eric almost jerked involuntarily if he had any muscle movement left in his body when he saw that the person's hand was coated not in skin, but **fur**.  The being took another look at Eric and spoke in a hoarse tone, like it hadn't been used for years. Either that, or it was dead (impossible) or had done one too many evil things and wanted to put it behind. Like a professional soldier. In this town, however, Eric instantly ruled that out.

      "We will meet again, my soul-carrier. It is then that you will find your destiny." Upon leaving, Eric awoke.

      "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT?!?" Eric barked upon awakening. Silently thanking the soundproof doors, Eric went and checked the clock. 4:39, now he'd never get back to sleep. Groovy.

      Tip-toeing down the stairs by means of habit, he couldn't really think of anything to do nearly blind, so he trudged back upstairs to squeeze his contacts in. Thirty minutes and a lot of frustration later, he finally got the old contacts in and made a mental note to let his dad know he needed more. He then proceeded to veg out in front of the TV with the SNES attached, beat Contra III and Sunset Riders… again, when he went to get his hat from his bed stand.

      He instantly nearly had a heart attack.

      For there, upon his dresser, were a pair of mirrorshades.

      Exactly like the one the strange midnight visitor gave him!


	4. SFA 2? Chapter IV

Chapter IV  
  


     Eric just stood there. About a million things were racing through his mind. How did it get there? Was the creepy cloak dude not a dream? Was the house robbed? Eric had no answers. He had half a mind to call Sarah Terminham, who you could sort of call Eric's girlfriend, but thought better of it. How do you explain something which isn't supposed to be there?  
     Eric reached for the shades, almost drawn to them by a psychokinetic force. Picking them up and examining them, he saw them to be very good quality; almost as if they hadn't been worn at all, and made by top designers. He didn't see anything on the inside that might try to poke him when he put it on, so lying on his back on his bed (the sweat had evaporated,) he slowly slid the mirror shades to his ears, looking up at his SFA poster on the ceiling.  
     "Great, now I'm hallucinating," grumbled Eric. His vision was starting to get blurred, like when he tried to put both his contacts and his glasses on at the same time (after rubbing his head from running into the wall, he decided concealing contacts from classmates was less important than insuring mental health). Weird wisps of what looked like smoke was clouding his vision. Looking over at his alarm clock, he remembered the time on it: 8:52.  
     Looking back at the ceiling, he saw not his poster of Krystal and Fox, but... THE SKY?!? Eric bolted upright. He was no longer even seeing his room anymore, he was on a somewhat large mountain overlooking a small rural village.  
     Feeling the ground, ensuring that his eyes weren't the only things playing tricks on him, he suddenly had a shocking revelation that proved it wasn't a dream; he could hear.  
     He never was ever able to remember even having the sense of hearing during a dream; all sensory input remembered was through the eyes. To his right, a pair of...  
     "...triceratops...now I've seen everything..."  
     "Hey, fleshy, either help with the work or stand aside," one of the triceratops said grumpily. "He looks like Sir Fox McCloud, only with no fur..." Eric heard under the triceratops breath.  
     "That's it: I've seen enough!" Eric said while ripping the shades from his face.  
     It started again, only in reverse; the vision blurred and he reappeared in his house, only standing up near the front door.  
     "Odd, but I didn't move more than a couple feet..." Eric murmured, although he did feel that he was thinking of the front door so that he could run from the house and never turn back. He almost did unlock the door, but common sense prevailed.  
     Eric just stared at the sunglasses. Whatever was going on, he'd need to find out.


	5. Sarah Terminham Chapter V

Chapter V  
  
  


  
Eric knew where he was going; he had locked the house so his parents weren't going to be TOO mad if they came home and found the house deserted, but he HAD to talk to Sarah.  
It took awhile, about 30 minutes, to get there when Eric realized that Sarah wasn't exactly a morning person, but still he had to try. Sarah's parent's weren't home either; a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses spent nearly 15 hours a week in church, and Sarah's dad nearly died of fever before Eric forced antibiotics down his throat. Sarah hadn't seen her dad for a good 48 hours because he was, "fasting to remove the impurities the poison Eric gave him," Sarah's mom said angrily, and it had gotten the Terminham's and the Shroud's in a bitter rivalry, but that hadn't stopped Eric from buying a ladder to sneak into Sarah's home when her parents weren't there. Like Eric, Sarah shared nonreligious beliefs realizing that, had Eric not been there to stuff the Tylenol down Mr. Terminham's maw, he probably would have died. She was also slightly older than Eric was, at sixteen, a year and a half older than Eric was.  
Eric clunked the ladder to the side of Sarah's house and looked in through the window. Sarah walked in through the hallway wearing a bathrobe. "Huh? I thought you weren't coming," She muttered. "I need to tell you something really weird." Her voice started normal, but edged downward so that the last word was barely more than a whisper. Sarah was a good head shorter than Eric was, standing at 5'6, with medium-long brown hair and dark brown eyes. She had (to Eric) a nice, beautiful face, smooth with faint freckles, although you had to look hard to notice them. She never went very hard on the makeup, which Eric silently blessed every time he played Ocarina of Time and flinched at the gallons of it on Impa and Nabooru. Sarah was also an unbelievable archer shot, often putting Eric's developed skills to shame.  
"How ironic, I'm here for the same reason." Eric said shakily.  
"I was waking up in the morning to go to the bathroom, when I found-" She pulled out something from her bathrobe "-these." In her hand, were a pair of mirror shades.  
Eric fell off the ladder. Coughing through a mouthful of leaves and twigs, he got up, embarrassed, while trying to decide whether his butt was broken or it just really, really hurt, while Sarah forgot her nervousness and collapsed into laughter. "What's so wrong!" she giggled. It's just a pair of sunglasses! It's just how I got them!"  
"Yeah, remind me to duct tape your mouth shut," Eric muttered grumpily. After what he'd seen in his room...and the fact that he could remember what he'd heard, going from awake to fantasyland to awake...was just insanity-inducing. Eric explained what had happened while a grin was produced around Sarah's lips.  
"You think I'm joking!" Eric barked, at Sarah's disbelief phase. "Alright, I'll prove it to you! I'm going to put these shades on and I'm going to vanish and appear on top of a mountain with freaky triceratops dudes."  
Sarah just sat back, letting Eric's insanity vent. He was always under a lot of stress, mainly about his chosen exile, but she couldn't just abandon him, she just couldn't.  
Eric focused on what happened 45 minutes ago. He put the shades on- and nothing happened. No wisps of smoke, no, "blue screen," that had appeared just before the transportation, nothing. Eric yanked the shades off while a smile was playing around Sarah's lips.  
Sarah said gently, trying not to cackle hysterically, "Were you thinking of anything when you put them on?" She said, playing her moms role as psychiatrist.  
Eric stopped for a moment. Yes, he realized, he was partially thinking about SFA, staring at his poster on the ceiling when he put them on. Maybe if he thought of SFA...  
"Yes. I was. I was looking at my SFA poster on the ceiling and thinking about that, sorta..."  
Without stopping to think for another answer, he put the shades on, concentrating on his SFA poster.  
Sure enough, the smoke appeared, vision blurred, and Sarah's astonished face appeared. Taking the shades off before vanishing completely, Eric grinned triumphantly. "Convinced yet?"


	6. Alternate Reality Chapter VI

Chapter VI  
  


  
Sarah sat there in disbelief. She had just seen her best friend nearly disappear before her very eyes, simply by putting on some mirror sunglasses that had miraculously appeared at his house overnight. Her mind ran through all possibilities. Holographic projector? If it was 2010 and not 2002, she might have thought so. A Spartan bedroom left her with no nifty fancy things that could have been playing tricks in her mind, so she immediately discounted that. She looked at her shades. Were these like Eric's shades? Only testing would tell, but… Something about this seemed vaguely dangerous; something Sarah couldn't quite put her finger on it.  
Sarah put the shades to her face. It was now or never, this would be a major turning point in the world for weirdness, almost as weird as the time Eric tried to do a science project at the Science Project Expo about the future of the world and ended up setting fire…to the nitroglycerin cases he was using to power a water maker, causing it to explode and burn several projects down. Eric was banned from future Expos.  
Sarah slowly put her shades on. Right when it was about to slip over her ears, Eric started muttering something about looking like Trinity and put his arm on Sarah's hand. "I think you have to think about where you want to go. I guess I'll be seeing you in the SFA world? I wanna head back there again. This is gonna be cool…" Eric said with a goofy grin. "Cheerio!" He said as he walked out of the window, slipping his shades over his noggin as he went.  
"Eric!" Sarah screamed. She threw the shades aside and ran to the window. Looking over the edge, she saw a blurry figure disappear as it hit the ground.  
This was it. Now or never. She walked back over to her shades' resting place on the floor and picked them up. Deciding it was going to be faster if she didn't sweat hesitation, she focused on the Circuit City new announcements board's SFA picture.  
Almost immediately she felt her world going hazy, like viewing everything through a thin layer of gauze. Soon, white wisps were coming to obscure everything else even further, and it became extremely disorienting. Soon enough, however, her vision clouded completely and cleared as she saw herself standing at the top of a giant mountain, looking over the same rural village Eric saw earlier. Eric was to her right, massaging his back.  
"Ow," he grimaced standing up. "I hit the ground before I disappeared. Do you know how much it hurts to land on your back from 15 feet up? Thank god for all of those leaves outside your window."  
"Ok, Eric, this is far enough! I don't know how this is going on, but you can wake me when we all come back to reality." Sarah shrieked desperately, reaching to pull her shades off.  
"Oh, this is reality. It can't be a dream. How many dreams have you had where you can remember having non-vision senses?" Eric had struck a soft spot as Sarah removed her hand from her face; she couldn't remember a single dream. Sarah couldn't believe it. Mysterious transportation to another world, and Eric was reveling in it. So maybe those 1,347 letters to Sony asking to be in a game WEREN'T all jokes…  
"Anyway, I'm heading down there and shooting it with the locals, care to join me? Better figure out where we are…" Eric said cheerfully. Truth be told, Eric still wasn't used to this, but… the undeniable coolness of it all pulled him back for more. Along with a few grudging remarks about the impossibility of the situation, Sarah came too.  
Sure enough, about 45 seconds passed when they ran into a triceratops creature. Mustering what little courage was left after the school idiots got through with him; Eric started to speak.  
"Um…er…triceratops…um…dude, can you tell me where me and my friend are?" At this the triceratops creature looked over and rolled his eyes. Sarah would have done the same if the sheer abnormality of it all hadn't robbed her of her ability to communicate intelligently.  
"You don't get around much, do you?" The triceratops said, half annoyed. "I can't even believe you don't recognize me, I'm Prince Tricky, Prince of Dinosaur Planet, and a member of the Earthwalker race."   
"Yeah, well, that wasn't my question, royal pain-in-the-butt, I ask for something politely and I get my head bitten off! Maybe I oughta shorten those horns…or something…" Eric said, now very annoyed. Do all nobles have to be total snobs? He thought.   
"Ho, you'll not get away with that for long!"  
"Just watch me!"…  
This went on for quite some time before Sarah lost her temper. "Enough! She yelled. Then, to Eric specifically, she said, "Seriously, Eric, you come all this way only to argue with the locals? Let's all settle this like civilized… um…" She almost said, "human beings," but caught herself. "…people."  
    "Okay…" Eric grumbled, still eying Tricky dubiously. "So you say we're on Dinosaur Planet? Who's in charge here?"  
    "Krystal, made Princess of Dinosaur Planet after Sir Fox McCloud saved us two years ago. Say, you look a lot like him, except for a lack of fur and a different shaped head. Anyway, the main city is that way-" He moved a massive foot to the north. "-and you might run into one of them there if you have questions."  
"Er… Yeah. Anyway, thanks." Eric said before walking off.  
  "Eric, I think you seriously oughta work on your people skills. Every job requires some social interaction." Sarah said after the encounter.  
  "You don't even think it's slightly weird that we're going and talking with prehistoric dinosaurs?" Eric inquired.  
  "Well, since we're in dreamland anyway…" Sarah trailed off.  
  They began walking north for a while, after about a half hour they stopped to take a break. "Crap, this is still giving me the heebie-jeebies." Eric complained.  
  Sarah was about to answer when a rustling behind the bushes startled her. "Eric! Watch out!" She screamed as a figure burst from the bushes and launched itself at Eric. Tumbling over the ground, Eric fought to get to his feet and face the creature.  
Unfortunately, the other being was already up at its feet and Eric was still fumbling. He managed to clumsily block a blow before an uppercut to Eric's stomach brought him to his knees. Sarah screamed as a familiar sound of a hammer of the gun clicking during hasty focus aimed itself at Eric's head.  
    "Don't come any closer, you'd be surprised at how fast I can change aim." The voice… it sounded… familiar, to Eric, who was looking down, but Sarah knew what she saw. A fox-like creature upright, with light brown fur and a white streak down the top of its head.  
  Eric dared a peek looking up, and involuntarily nudged backward. The things gun was now centered squarely between it's eyes, and a trigger happy finger seemed more than happy to be able to switch between Eric and Sarah in a heartbeat.  
  "Get away from me, you freaky… fox… mutation… THING!" Eric screamed. Eric's life was flashing before his eyes. The being caught something along the lines of, "I don't wanna die…" from Eric's fractured brain.  
"Well now, that's a bit degrading, is it not?" the creature said, cocking an eyebrow.  
"W-h-h-o-o-o are y-y-y-o-o-u?" Sarah stuttered.  
  "Sir Fox McCloud, knighted by General Pepper of the Cornarian Army."  
  "Holy crap…" Eric's voice sounded foreign to him, it was so pale and weak. Fox's sensitive ears twitched, but didn't hear anything coherent.  
  "What did you say?" Fox said, squinting his eyes."  
  "You have no idea how good I am with you at Super Smash Bros. Melee," Eric felt like saying, but he really just said, "Nothing, er, can we go now? All we were trying to do was go to the Capital City…"  
  "Let me check you for weapons, we get a lot of suspicious looking folk, and seeing as you are two-of-a-kind…"  
Eric complained, but let Fox search him. All Fox really found was a wallet with twelve dollars in it, his house key and his student ID…  
"Eric Shroud, 13," Fox muttered, ignoring the rest of the card. "A bit young for adventuring around out here, no?" He said. "He checked the card some more. "Whitford Middle School? That'll have to run through the records, I can't remember any school named Whitford. ID#… 783421? Another archive check. Other than that, you're free to go," Fox finished, giving Eric back his wallet. "These are dangerous times, rumors going around, we're checking the rumors authenticity."  
  "What are they? And if they're true…?" Eric inquired, nursing his seriously damaged pride."  
"Sorry, kid, not at liberty to discuss that. Maybe we'll meet again; uh oh…"  
"What?" Eric turned around, and saw what. A gigantic horde of animals, all walking upright and carrying very human appearances, save maybe fur and the head, all female, were rushing at Fox, screaming things that Sarah caught on the breeze as, "It's Fox McCloud!" "Our savior!" "The leader of the SF team…" Fox made a rather hasty exit just then, as the onrushing mob just tossed Eric and Sarah aside like rag dolls. Still, Eric couldn't shake the fact that Fox had made one last backward glance at him. "I think the SPCA got waylaid," Eric muttered sarcastically. Sarah cracked up. "We'd better head down the capital city, see what Fox was up to…"  
Little did they know what exactly had been on Fox's mind that brief conversation.  
  



	7. Enter Starfox and Klepto Chapter VII

Chapter VII  
  


  
  The road to Capital City was uneventful, but the appearance of it was simply majestic. Giant, made of crystal ("Must be, what was the name of the princess, again?" Eric muttered sarcastically), with bustling commerce on the streets. Several planes flew overhead, and one came so close Eric had to duck or be decapitated. On the side it said, "ArWing 900", but Eric was too busy looking around at the colossal buildings.  
   "Oh my…" Sarah gasped. She seemed almost as impressed as Eric was.  
   "Yeah, I'd have taken a beating and nearly capped in the melon if I got to come here," Eric breathed, hypnotized.  
  They spent another half-hour just sightseeing, before making a trip to the largest building. Several Earthwalker guards stood fast.  
    "Halt! Who goes there! Identification papers required beyond this point!"  
    Eric felt like arguing, but Sarah pulled out her student ID. Catching on, Eric pulled out his.   
   "You may pass, visiting hours are until 6:00." A guard on the left said, relaxing. "Sir Fox McCloud checked your record, Shroud." He added.  
    "I think I just figured something out. Fox was knighted since SFA!" Eric lamented as they walked through the door.  
   "Err… Tricky was right, you DO need to get out more." Sarah mumbled, rolling her eyes. I wonder what they meant by, 'checked your record,' we haven't even been here an hour yet."  
    "Hey, yeah," Eric said, checking his watch. "Whoa…" Eric realized his watch had only changed a minute. Looking at the big clock, the local time was 5:30. "We don't have much time, so let's come for whatever we're looking for and get out."  
  The inside was almost as incredible as the outside. Hundreds, if not thousands, of pterodactyl creatures and Earthwalkers roaming around, some munching on what looked like food, an accountant on a desk, and one look at a sign near the elevator showed more nifty things than this.  
  "Basements: restricted, Floor 19, Cloudrunner Entrance… those must be those flying things, Floor 4, food court, hey, cool, Floor 18:  
Throne Room. Betcha we'll find whoever's in charge here, maybe smooth talk our way for something, or something." Eric said, reading the sign. "Or maybe…" He started with a mischievous grin.  
"You don't mean…" Sarah said disapprovingly. "The basements?"  
"Sure, I mean, what could they possibly have for security?"  
Almost in answer to his own words, what looked like a raccoon started dashing from the elevator, carrying a briefcase and a sack, and looking in a great deal of a hurry. Roughly four seconds after his appearance, about six or seven Earthwalker guards started galloping after him. "Get him! They yelled.  
Suddenly, everything Eric saw started to slow down, to the point where nothing was moving. Then, as if his eyes weren't his own, his view moved towards a shield and two halberds mounted on the wall like a coat of arms. He could even see himself vaguely, and suddenly, he knew what to do.  
  As time brought itself back to the present, he launched himself not at the potentially thieving raccoon, but at the coat of arms, he brought his foot forward squarely at the bottom of the shield, knocking it off the wall and flying across the room, clocking the raccoon in the cranium while the halberds sliced down and imbedded themselves in the doorway, blocking access in or out of the building.  
The Earthwalkers hit him like a ton of bricks.  
  "It's Klepto Ichabod!" Eric heard one of the Earthwalkers saying as they tied the raccoon up. "The last taste of freedom he'll have, given his record." One of the Earthwalkers walked toward Eric. "Those were some nice reflexes, kid, what's your name?" He said, apparently ignoring the fact that Eric was not only furless, but had a head shaped completely different from everyone else's and lacked big ears to match.  
"Uh… Eric Shroud."  
"Hey, you're that one guy from, what did the archives say? The Milky Way galaxy? I can't remember that, you must be from pretty far away."  
"Um… Yeah, I'd say that," Sarah said as she jogged over.  
"Who's she?" The Earthwalker said, eyeing Sarah dubiously.  
  "Hmm? Oh, don't worry, she's with me." Eric said hastily.  
"Anyway, you wouldn't believe what Klepto had on his record. Grand theft, armed robbery, plane hijacking…" The Earthwalker trailed off. "Oh yeah! I'm Chief of the Guard here at Dinosaur Planet. The name's Spike.  
"Um… ok, great name!" Sarah offered hopefully.  
"Eh, you'll get used to it. Anyway, I think we should introduce you to General Pepper, He's just upstairs visiting. Krystal and Pepper will be pleased that you caught Klepto."  
  "Nifty. Lead the way." Eric was getting used to this.  
  Spike moved toward the elevator while his guard cronies dragged Klepto to another elevator. Eric and Sarah didn't really want to think what exactly was going to happen, but Sarah was practically skipping in the elevator. The bluish crystal the elevator was made of was slightly transparent, so they could see outside.  
Finally the elevator hit Floor 18, and in spite of all that they had seen so far, Eric and Sarah gasped. A beautifully ornate room, decorated with chamber pots, carefully positioned torches, and a magnificent chandelier covered the room. A corner seemed to have rather childish features and several torn-apart blankets. Their eyes fell on a wicker casket when a voice brought him back to his senses.  
"Oei cabo Jade's dijoho, ooj?" A blue-furred vixen on a chair said from the middle of the room. It brought Eric back to reality, but Sarah was still busy admiring the objects around the room.  
"Uh, sorry? I mean…" Eric said, and now Sarah too was looking at them. Eric quickly recovered with some of his abysmal Spanish. "No se, No comprende senora. Er… comprende?"  
  "She said, ' You like Jade's nursery, yes?'" Spike said from behind them. Eric had forgotten he was even there.  
"Uh, yeah, can you tell her that"?  
"Sure." Then, to the vixen, "ooj, Krystal."  
Krystal smiled. What looked like a bulldog in military clothing walked up, with…  
"Sir Fox McCloud!" Spike gasped, kneeling with his front legs.  
"Spike, what is the meaning of bringing this civilian?" General Pepper inquired.  
  "He stopped Klepto Ichabod, sir." Spike said, looking up. "I brought him here to you, figuring that he stopped perhaps the most dangerous thief in the history of Dinosaur Planet."  
  "Hmm… Now that's something. Unfortunately, I'm busy with something currently…" Pepper's voice trailed off. "Military struggles on Titania, riots are costing the lives of several soldiers in the struggles…"  
"And, true to military form, all this is an understatement. Maybe we can help?" Eric offered.  
"I HIGHLY doubt it, but OK…" Pepper grumbled. "What we need to do is to launch an attack at a fuel center on Titania, this should cause enough of a panic to let us get through and take out their leader, who we believe is causing the riots. Here is the battlefield map, along with current soldier positions, which changes as the battlefield changes."  
It didn't take Ulysses S. Grant to realize that the Cornarian army was indeed screwed. Only a few tanks, airplanes, and infantry seemed to be on the battleground, while there were too many foes on the other side of the board.  
     Eric's encyclopedia mind was racing. Several Cornarian soldiers were closing in on rioters, and it didn't look like Cornaria's side of the board had the firepower.  
     "Crap, you guys are screwed. Unless…" Eric said, getting an angry scowl from Pepper. "Wait a minute… What are those guys holding?"  
     "They're grenades, intended to take out tanks. But the ratio of grenades to tanks is too many, what's your angle, Shroud?" Pepper grumbled.  
     "My angle?!? Obviously, you didn't hit general status via military conquest," Eric snarled. "That's an APC! Less durable than tanks, and loaded with gas. Let's see how long that takes to click." Eric might have been pushing his luck, but he couldn't believe how Pepper missed it the APC's high gas capacity.  
It clicked. Pepper picked up a walkie-talkie to get them to fire the grenades at the APCs. Seconds later…  
"Woo hoo! Fireworks! Gotta love stuff gettin' blown up." Eric grinned. The APC's exploded in nuclear fireballs, allowing the infantry to move in and clean up what was left.  
"I still say you got lucky, but thanks. Now we can interrogate the leader and put a stop to these cursed raids!" Pepper glowed.  
"Hey, you want to look at Jade?" Krystal's voice was on Eric's right.  
"I didn't know you spoke…" Once again, Sarah had to catch her tongue. She almost said, "English," but her mind came back to what Eric said all games made normal language. "Common."  
"They're called, 'translators,' Sarah." Krystal retorted. And I never said I didn't," She said, turning the translator off. "You just assumed I didn't from our encounter.  
   "What?!? And you let me do my pathetic Spanish all that time?!?" Eric shrieked.  
"Well, it was very entertaining." Krystal said with a mischievous grin.  
"Riiight… I'm officially pissed off now…" Eric started, but was cut short abruptly when Krystal brought out Jade.  
"Coooollll…" Sarah mumbled.  
"Who's the father?" Eric said, getting the hint that it was Krystal's daughter.  
Krystal nodded mysteriously at Fox, who started twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.  
"Uh… Mazel Tov!" Eric called, scratching behind Jade's ears and administering a sharp cry of pain when Jade bit him. "Feisty little fox, eh?" Eric said, nursing his finger as two blood droplets fell from his finger and hit the floor. Spike and Sarah roared out laughing, while Pepper gave a disapproving glance, when there was a knock at the door. Krystal put Jade back in the bassinet.  
Eric slunk back into the shadows of a corner while Pepper and Spike went to answer. "Yes?" Spike's voice could be heard saying.  
"I heard the news, and wanted to give Krystal's daughter a bright new baby toy!" A voice on the other side of the door said. In walked a cheetah, dressed in a black leather jacket soaked in water. After checking outside the window, it was raining, that'd explain the H2O.  
     The cheetah walked around the room as Eric's gut clenched. Something was up, but he couldn't act until he knew what was going on. The cheetah brought out a nicely detailed doll of a raccoon, and Jade wasted no time to bring her teeth into the doll. Several sounds of stitching being ripped apart sounded across the room.  
     "Thanks for the gift, Mr.…" Krystal started.  
     "Call me Kryss." The cheetah said. Maybe it was Eric's imagination, but he could've sworn Kryss was wincing… Bah, it must have been his eyes playing tricks on him. "Bye! And good luck with your daughter!" Kryss left, Spike followed to go check on the downstairs.  
     "That was nice of him." Pepper said. "Especially coming through the rain."  
Eric, however, noticed something odd. As the others were talking about Kryss and his generosity, Eric's eyes were instead on the floor. There, on the ground, were four droplets of blood, one by Jade's cradle, one between the cradle and the door, and two at the door. Eric's blood lay at the center of the room.  
     The others started noticing something. "Hey- Where's my staff?" Krystal inquired. "I thought I left it here…"  
That was nothing compared to Eric's whisper that cut through the room like a shout.  
     "He's got Jade."


	8. Foxnapped! Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII

      "He's got Jade." Eric's whisper pierced the room like an arrow through a Japanese door.

      Pepper came riding up, suspicion screaming in his eyes. "And how do you know this?!? He demanded, picking Eric up by the scruff of his shirt.

      "I'm Sherlock Holmes, I see everything," Eric retorted, trying to get his bearings and his breath back. "When Jade bit me, she drew blood. You can even see it in the center of the room. Now, Kryss, when he walked out, I could've sworn he was wincing. And look… four drops of blood between the door and Jade's bassinet."

      Pepper gave the kind of relaxed feeling you get from Secret Service bodyguards; anything goes wrong and they're prepared to give hell. Outside, a school of Cloudrunners flying in front of the window gave Eric a terrifying idea.  If he didn't pull it off… it was a long way down.

      "Gimme a gun," Eric whispered as the rest ran towards the door to check on things downstairs.

      Pepper got his bad temper back again. "No way in-!"

      Fox interrupted. "We'll need all the firepower we can get, General," Fox explained. "Besides, you don't even know what he's going to use it for yet." Eric noticed Fox's hand wavered dangerously over his holster as if he expected he was going to use it already.

      Pepper grudgingly handed over a blaster. "Now what?"

      "And a translator from common to…er… Dinosaur…Planet…ese…" Eric said, eyes darting towards the window outside and praying that more Cloudrunners were still out there.

      "For communication?" Pepper said, eyeballing Eric as he handed one over.

      After he got his gear ready, he walked over to the window, opened it, and started shouting at the Cloudrunners below.

      "Eric?" Sarah asked. "You wouldn't…" she whispered to herself.

      "He would," Fox didn't realize he had said that out loud as Eric started backing up from the window.

      "No! No! No! No!" Spike, Krystal, and Sarah yelled out as Eric took a dash at the window.  Pepper took a lunge to stop him, but missed. Fox dove, but was too far away.

      Eric dove out of the window, his feet breaking part of the bottom.  If calculations were correct…

      Moments before diving off into the teeming masses of people below, he caught onto the back of a Cloudrunner. "What are you doing!" it yelled. "I'm supposed to be on the roof helping with the attack!"

      "Change of plans!" Eric bellowed over the pouring rain. He was praying the blaster and translator were waterproof, as his shorts were soaked to the skin already and the interior of his pockets were drenched with enough water to put a hydro pump to shame.  "Come on! We've got a McCloud to save!"

      "You don't mean… Sir Fox McCloud's in peril?" The Cloudrunner breathed as Eric guided it to an escaping ship with a V on it.

      "No, just his daughter. Yah!"

(Fox, Sarah, Krystal, Spike)

      "Damn!" Fox cursed as Eric landed on a Cloudrunner. He steered over to his right where, Fox saw, a Venom ship was attempting escape.

      "Fox McCloud, don't you dare try anything rash!" Pepper warned as Fox began to get the manic glint in his eye.

      Nah, no more Cloudrunners, Fox thought. Kid's got guts. What he said instead was, "Our only chance is to make it to the hanger for our ships, General, call for reinforcements." Fox tossed Krystal and Sarah blasters. "We need firepower, do you know how to use a gun, miss…" Fox added, looking at Sarah.

      "It's Sarah, and yeah, I play paintball with Eric all the time…"

      "This is only slightly different from some childhood game…!" Pepper roared as he picked up his radio, but the rest of his sentence was lost as the others dashed out to figure what was going on. As they left, the Master Alarm went off, blaring over almost all other sound.

(Eric)

      "Get me over to that ship!" Eric howled over the deafening static of the off-key radio called the rain.

      "But how…"

      "I swear to god, the next time you question about what I'm going, I'm jumping off and finding another Cloudrunner!" Eric said menacingly. "Less talk, more fly!"

(Fox, Sarah, Krystal, Spike)

      The rest of the building was almost as screwed as Jade was.  Venom had launched an attack and was attempting to make off with the next generation of McCloud, with Krystal's powerful staff to boot.

      "They're trying to follow us!" Spike cried, laying low a Venom terrorist coming from behind.

      "Fox! This is hopeless!" Sarah moaned, nearly getting a mouthful of plasma.  "The only way we can stand is if those reinforcements Pepper called arrive! And what about Eric!" She added, blasting a firm shot in the shoulder of an advancing thug.

      "Here's the plan!" Fox called as they ducked behind an overturned table. Krystal stood guard. "We need to get to the basement! When we get there, I can get my parked ArWing, and then I'll get Eric. You'll have to hold the fort until Pepper's soldiers arrive, got it?"

      The wall behind them suddenly exploded as a small, tank-like machine plowed through it. It immediately fired a missile at Spike, whose flesh split open as it exploded on his scaled hide. Sarah fired a few shots at it, to now avail.

      "Run!" Krystal called, grabbing Fox's arm. "Nothing we have will take this on! We need to get to the hanger!"

      Fox nodded in reluctant agreement, but as they tried to escape, machine guns fired at Spike, causing him to fall. His life force ebbed as his eyes began to cloud, and he stumbled, smearing blood on the linoleum floor.

      "Spike!" Sarah called, running back to kneel beside him. All Spike said was, "Go!" before another rocket landed on his back. When the dust settled, the grossness of blood smearing the wall was only compounded by Spike's beheaded cranium rolling and coming to a halt at Sarah's feet.

      Sarah vomited as Krystal dragged her away when Fox found the armory weapons on this floor. He gave the tank a shot from a rocket launcher, and Sarah found her screaming stopped by the high-pitched whine coming from the rocket-propelled grenade, which landed inside the tank before exploding in a shower of glory and tank parts.

      Your death, has been avenged, Fox thought as they fled. Gunning down two more Venom terrorists, they finally made it to the elevator. "Ok, I'll go get my ship, you guys take out as many of those guys as possible. I need to make sure that no one escapes through the air."

      "Alright," Sarah said, still feeling sick at the loss of Spike. Krystal helped her to stand as they staggered to the door as Fox mashed the buttons on the elevator.

(Fox)

      I hope this wasn't the wrong choice, Fox thought hopelessly. Right when my vacation was going so well, too…

      With no time to lose, Fox decided to speed things up a bit. He pushed the, "Slide," button on the elevator door and heard the brakes loosening up.  Within seconds, he was at the bottom basement where the secret hangar was, ready for grabbing his stuff.

      Pocketing his sword he got upon becoming knighted, he ran for the ArWing he kept here when he was vacationing.  Booting it up, he pushed the remote that would open the meadow a short distance south up so he could see what was going on from his preferred view: the sky.

      Now to see how Eric's doing and when are our backup is coming.

(Eric)

      Wiping his hair out of his eyes for the sixth time in about two minutes, the Cloudrunner was nearing the Venom ship. Fleeing from Eric, the back hatch started to open.

      Whipping out his blaster and translator, and hoping that they weren't damaged by the sheer dose of H2O they had taken recently, he stood shakily to the back of his mount. "Give Jade back!" He yelled as it finished opening.

      It was Klepto! He was holding a mask that looked like Kryss' face on it. With no time to lose, Eric readied his gun and was about to pull the trigger when he pulled out both Krystal's staff and…

      "Jade!" Eric moaned. Klepto was using her as a fox shield, despite the awesome array of crimson plasma that resulted from handling her with his bare hands. Eric couldn't get a clean shot off!

      "Die! No one who sees me in a moment of weakness lives!" Klepto called. His voice was scratchy, like a crow's. He waved Krystal's staff in the air and fired a fireball at Eric

Dodging to the side to avoid a third degree burn, Eric dropped the translator as he struggled to keep his balance. "Stay steady!" Eric yelled at the Cloudrunner, despite it's inability to understand.  Slipping to get to his feet again, he aimed his blaster as Klepto readied another shot. From over Jade's right ear, one blazing eye dared him to shoot.

(Fox)

      Through his rain splattered windshield, Fox could see Eric perfectly. He was standing on top of the Cloudrunner he landed on, and was steadying his aim through the wind. Good, Fox thought, He hasn't gotten himself killed yet. Fox accelerated to get to the point where his lasers could be useful through the heavy rain, and noted out of the corner of his eye Lylat ships coming in through the atmosphere. Looks like the cavalry's here!

(Eric)

      With Klepto readying another shot and crouching behind part of the door and Jade herself, he wasn't going to get another shot.  "Squeeeeeeeeeze the trigger…"

      Results couldn't have been both catastrophic and favorable at the same time. The laser pierced through Klepto's eye, causing him to scream in pain. Also, as Fox would later tell him, the laser speared the brain of the pilot of the ship.

      Good things ended there, however, as with his last breath Klepto threw Jade at Eric. Dropping his gun to catch Jade, it looked like Klepto's last chance to kill Eric would have been in vain as he dropped from this ship, Krystal's staff in his death grip.  Unfortunately for Eric, turbulence from the ship's dying controls rocked the Cloudrunner, creating a shudder that rocked his body. Eric lost his balance and began to fall into the urban abyss, clutching Jade tightly and ignoring the fact that she was eating his hand. He shut his eyes and waited for his world to end.

      Eric was falling through the air for almost three seconds when he hit a hard object, a good 30 seconds before he anticipated he'd actually splat.  Opening his eye, Fox grinned cheerfully through the windshield of the ArWing Eric had landed on.

      Eric had no time to breath a sigh of relief, for the impact of landing had shaken his grip. He watched helplessly as Jade rolled out of his hands.

      He reached out and caught Jade between his feet.

      Fox steered the ArWing towards the ground while Eric had a heart attack, screaming bloody murder through the windshield. Fear gripped his mind for the first time, despite the cavalry finally arriving.

      Sarah and Krystal limped out of the building, each sporting several burns as the Lylat soldiers started rounding up the Venom thugs who had failed to evacuate the area yet. Eric landed rather ungracefully, trying to keep Jade injury-free.

      "Ok, here's what I've learned. One, Jade is safe, two, Klepto's gonna need a little bit more than a band-aid, and three, my hand feels like it's on fire. EEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!!" Eric screamed as he tried to pry Jade from his fingers. His hand was coated in blood, and near the finger it was torn open so badly you could see the bone.

      Screaming in agony, he gingerly handed Jade to Krystal, who then embraced Eric ("Please, I'm still 14, I'm a bit young for that…"), glad that he brought Jade back in one piece ("I know you really, really like that Jade got back safely, but when someone hugs me for more than 15 seconds I get a little freaked out…").

      A Lylat medic, noticing that Eric's hand was bleeding like one of Annie Oakley's victims, gave Eric a roll of bandages to mop up his hand with.

      Pepper then came storming out of the building, grabbing Eric by the neck of his shirt and pulled him aside for a bit of, "one on one chat."

      "That was the most suicidal thing I could ever imagine, for sheer lack compassion for your own life you would not even make it to the military boot camp!" He stormed, going red in the face. "And, for that, Jade owes you her life."

      "Yeah, well, It's not my fault… huh?!?" Eric started, going into complete bewilderment at how Pepper's speech ended.

      "When the situation was brought under control, I spoke with Lieutenant Derrek, one of my best men.  I had a Purple Paw awarded in your honor, and a spot in the military should you decide to join."

      "I'd feel flattered, except that I have no idea what a Purple Paw is and I think the military is too rigid."

      "A Purple Paw is something we award to individuals who have made a daring act, something which can only be described as heroism or showing great compassion. Risking your own life for someone you already know is definitely something which qualifies for a Purple Paw. And, it'd be instant promotion to Captain."

      "Cool. I'll get back to you if I decide to join, ok?" 

      "That is fine," Pepper said, beaming.

      "What was that about?" Fox asked when Eric walked back to the group.

      "He said that I got a Purple Paw, and, if I decided to go into the military, I'd get an instant promotion to Captain."

      "No way! What are you gonna do?"

      "I don't know, Captain stuff," Eric joked as Sarah pulled him aside.

      "I can't take this. I almost get killed, and… It's just not natural. These are video game characters!  I'm going to go now, OK?" Sarah said, looking worried. "Promise me you won't go and get yourself killed if you stay here."

      "Huh? Yeah, of course I won't, I don't have any intention of taking the dirt nap."

      "Be careful. I might come back, but this is scaring me. Promise me you won't do something rash." Sarah said as she took off her shades.

Perfect, ruin my perfectly good mood, Eric muttered as he walked away from the blur that occurred when Sarah took off her shades. To add even more to his gloomy mood, the death toll rolled in: 46 dead, including Captain of the Guard. Eric steeled himself by telling him, "No sorrow for those lost in righteous battles." Then, he decided, it was time.

     Eric needed to know what was going on. "Fox," he called as he came closer as the aftermath of the attack subsided and the news reporters pulled up. "I want to get me some answers!" 

End of Act I


	9. Embarking of the SFF Chapter IX, Act...

Act II: The beginning of a new dawn.

Chapter one.

      "…You know, like what are you doing here, why aren't you patrolling space, and why Pepper is here as opposed to Corneria." Eric added, trying to figure out what was going on.

      "Alright, I figure you earned the right to know," Fox said. "I was taking what one of my teammates, Peppy, thought was a well-deserved vacation. And it looks like it's getting rudely interrupted."

      "Go figure, and I know who Peppy is. Remember, I see everything."

      "Er… ok… anyway, Pepper was here to warn about extra activity on the surface of Venom. Apparently, he felt that appearing in person would make it extra important that we do something. And what were you doing here?"

      "Uh… I thought Falco was such a badass, I want his autograph! Seriously, I don't really know, it all involved these sunglasses that appeared miraculously. Say…" Eric trailed off, getting a flashback of the dream when the sunglasses inexplicably appeared. He remembered something now, the shadowy figure had a muzzle, like a canine…

      "What are you doing?" Fox asked when Eric put his hand up trying to block out Fox's eyes from Eric's vision.

      "I'm trying to get just a picture of your mouth, because it looks a lot like the dude who gave me these glasses which allowed me to come here."

      They ran over what the other person had told them in their mind. That explains a lot, Eric thought. "Thanks," Eric said. "I gotta go find Sarah, she was only slightly freaked out by the stuff that just went on here."

      "I understand. I remember my first bout of post-combat shakes." Fox said, walking over to survey the damage. "And," he added. "Thanks for saving Jade's life."

      "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind next time I want a hand injury," Eric said sarcastically, holding up his heavily bandaged hand. He took off his shades, with no intention of talking back to Sarah. OK, maybe he did, but he had better fish to fry.

(back in the Real World)

      Opening his eyes, he was on his back when he first arrived in the world of games. He called up to Sarah's room, but no answer. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sarah's parents car peeling off. "Ok, I hope Sarah's got the sense to stay quiet," He said to himself, glancing at his watch. "Whoa, two minutes gone, that was weird."

      Jotting down a note telling Sarah that she could come back at any time and that he probably was still going to be in the cyber world, and trotted home to grab supplies for the inevitable trip across the galaxy ("cooooooooool…"). Packing food and first aid, he then searched for less essentials.

      Picking up a watch he gadgeteered for kicks ("MP3 player and communicator, baby, yeah!") He grabbed a heavy stick from the garage to smack stuff (previously used on the idiots who incessantly preyed upon him) and some clothes to complete a bad-ass image ("I'm your worst nightmare…" Eric said to the mirror) he went upstairs to collect the last piece of luggage.

      A tome with everything Eric ever learned about useless things went into what he called unimaginatively, "Eric's guide to the useless," written in an invented code upside down and backwards, bottom to top, Eric pocketed it in case of usefulness. Slipping the shades back on with the journey in mind, Eric's only thought's were, "This is gonna be a hell of a trip…"

(In the Star Fox universe…)

      The rain had ceased with the sun shining brightly. Eric started off to look for Fox, who he found on the armory floor of the Capital Building. "Let me guess," Eric began before Fox even had his mouth open. "The extra activity is leading to increased suspicion in what is going on, and it's up to you to stop whatever extraordinarily evil plot they have in mind." 

      Fox nodded.

      "Well, much as I'm probably going to regret this later, but I'm going with you. Hell, my life has been pretty boring up to this point, now let's see some action!" Eric said.

"So be it. I could use someone to watch my back." Fox said with interest.

      "So where's the Great Fox?"

      "It's in a space port roughly one hundred miles that way, my ArWing is in it, undergoing repairs. I was lent another ship to get here, and they took it back, so it looks like we're walking."

"It's a shame, I could've flown again…" Eric complained; the adrenaline rush was too cool to not want again. Eric was contemplating what he'd do with another shot at flying when something nearly gave him a heart attack.

Despite only two minutes passing (and a third upon Eric's reentry) on his watch, he noticed that almost a day had passed in the SF world, according to the big clock outside. "Um, Fox, how long was I gone?" Eric asked.

"About a day, why?" was Fox's response.

Eerie, Eric thought. "And when do we set off?" Eric asked, taking a blaster. "And are these free?"

"Depends. Do you want it to be?." Fox asked with a grin.

"Yeeeeah…" Eric started. "But…?"

"I can pay for it. Not much else, with the bill we're gonna get for the Great Fox's repairs, but I can get you a blaster."

"Alright then, party."

      The rest of the afternoon passed drearily and without incident. Eric was practically bouncing off the walls up to the point when Fox said he was ready to go. He had on a backpack, his blaster in his holster, his radio helmet, and (Eric noticed) a knife hidden in his boots.

      "Fox, I'll be heading back to Corneria. I'll have to keep an eye on things in there." Pepper said, coming up to them as they set out to leave. "Krystal needs to keep an eye out for Jade right now, but she said she maybe would be able to join up in a while."

      Eric had half a mind to say, "Define, 'a while,'" but thought better of it, he was gonna go on an adventure! The word, "cliché," started to enter his mind, too, but hell, something cool was something cool. He also wondered when and if Sarah was going to come back; this opportunity was too good to miss.

      And thus began the StarFox Fellowship.

      The evening passed uneventfully, with Eric beginning to get bored from walking. The night was also monotonously similar to the trek during the evening, and Eric began to complain about aching legs, but a good nights sleep was granted nonetheless, despite Eric bemoaning the inconvenience of sleeping in the sunglasses so he didn't transport back to the real world in his sleep. 

      That morning, after a quick breakfast of concentrated rations ("People actually eat this stuff?" Eric complained), beef jerky and (in Eric's case) string cheese, Fox said he'd to explore the track ahead, as dangerous things often stirred out in the country. Eric said OK, and Fox trekked out to a hilly area ahead, some areas creating valleys that even hid Eric's 6' height, looking from shoulder level.

      Eric, feeling like doing something interesting, quickly jotted down a note by the camp, saying, "checked this direction, bored as hell, return hopefully before you get back so I can shred this note without you knowing I even left camp." Then Eric went into a different direction as Fox and, as he would soon figure out, much more eventful.

      Coming out from by a deeper valley with steep grassy walls on either side, Eric saw what looked like Fox leaning over a cliff surveying the land below. Eric started to call out to him, ask him what he was doing, when his vision went black and white.

      Trying not to panic, he suddenly noticed his viewpoint was changing. Despite remaining rooted in place, he could sense his view was moving without him. It then turned around, and Eric could see himself through this second camera. It went in front of Fox and showed something which scared the bejeezus out of him.

      Despite EVERYTHING else that he could see in shades of gray, Fox's eyes were not, they were blood red. Eric's foolproof danger alarm started screaming in his gut when he saw that as his sight snapped back into his position and in color.

      "Fox?" Eric trembled. He started to walk closer to Fox when he lunged at Eric, sending him tumbling to the ground. The redness of Fox's eyes was even more apparent when a mere foot-and-a-half away as Fox's hands descended on Eric's throat, trying to throttle the life out of him. Fumbling for his blaster through the black-and-blue haze as oxygen was slowly being deprived, Eric's left hand found purchase on the right side of "Fox's" face.

      It was enough to get his blaster, but it turned out to be futile as Fox quickly brought his fangs to Eric's neck. Trying to force him off, Eric ended up ripping a good inch of flesh off his neck, red foam flying from Fox's muzzle. Fox's bloodlust increased when a blast of wind and a storm of thunderbolts sent him flying off the cliff.

      Panting, Eric wasted no time in standing up, drawing his blaster and leveling it at whoever had saved him. "Alright, who are you and what are you doing here!"

      It was another vixen, although a different color than Krystal. Whereas Krystal wore a golden steel bikini with arctic blue fur, this one had a deep crimson hue to her fur, with pitch-black hair and shockingly green eyes.

      "Eclipse Passion, and I could ask the same of you." She said with an almost dangerous calm.

      Trying to stem the bleeding from the potentially severed vein in Eric's neck, keep his hand (and aim) steady and remember whoever the hell was Eclipse was a task in itself. Not daring to reach into his pocket for his guide for fear of dropping his attention, Eric said, as calmly as possible, "You tell me your business and I'll tell you mine."

      "That's not the way I do things."

      Not only was Eric starting to remember who Eclipse was, he was fairly confident, he decided that getting blown off the ledge in a flurry of lightning bolts was not on his top ten list. "Ok, I was traveling with Fox McCloud…"

      "You know him?" Eclipse interrupted.

      "Hell yeah, I'm going with him to halt some increased activity on the planet Venom. Real bad place, and judging from the tone of your response to the Fox McCloud sentence I'm guessing you already know that."

      "Yep!" was Eclipse's reply.

      Eric now had a good idea who Eclipse was, now that his heart rate was now below three hundred beats a minute. She was some other Star Fox CIA spy character from some other lame fan fiction he had seen somewhere, and didn't really care. All he was thinking about was coming up with a question that would prove legitimacy of her claim.

      "Alrighty then, if you really are Eclipse Passion…" He started. "What was the first thing Fox said to you when he heard your name?"

      Not deciding to wonder how Eric came about this information, Eclipse recalled back and quoted, "I think he said, 'by the way, is your first name solar?'"

      Fumbling for his book, he flipped open the pages and saw she got it right. "You know, I can give you Botox for that twitchy trigger finger of yours…" Eclipse joked as Eric finally relaxed his arm.

      "Hah, de ha ha," Eric retorted.

      Just then Fox, or at least the real one, decided to show up, and Eric was instantly suspicious. Bringing his blaster up to eye level again, he leveled it at Fox. "Did I miss something?" He asked. "Hey, Eclipse…"

      Eric shot at the ground roughly one inch away from Fox's foot. "Can the pleasantries, Fox, we… or at least I… saw something very disturbing just now, now PROVE YOUR FOX!!!" Eric yelled.

      "Uh… oooooooookaaaaaaaaaay…" Fox started.

      "Hesitant, eh? Ok, here's one. If you aren't THE Fox McCloud, there's no way your gonna get this. "WHO KILLED, HOW, AND WHY DID VIXY RIENHARD DIE!!!" Eric bellowed. Fox would probably think Eric had ice running through his veins after this, but he didn't care. He had been past caring about how other people felt.

      A tear running down Fox face - Eric did strike a tender part of Fox's childhood, after all - and struggling to keep his voice from cracking, Fox managed to whisper, "Andross, a car bomb, and trying to get at my dad."

      Eric holstered his blaster. "You passed."

      "Well," Fox said with an irked-out-of-my-damn-mind tone to his voice. "That was a particularly rough childhood memory you just revoked, Eric, any particular reason?"

      "BECAUSE I NEEDED TO KNOW IF YOU'RE THE FOX McCLOUD!" Eric bellowed. "I can't trust anyone, I've been betrayed to the point where I can't even walk out my front door without getting mugged! I can't trust you, I can't trust Krystal, I can't trust you, Eclipse, I can't even afford to trust my own mother. No matter who I talk to, I always watch my words to ensure that nothing I say can be used against me." He unsheathed his blaster and pointed to it. "This I can trust. It does nothing I won't tell it to and can keep secrets. A hell of a lot more trustworthy than any person." He holstered the blaster again.

      Fox and Eclipse secretly thought that this told them a lot about Eric's character; A reclusive loner with a knack for getting people pissed off at him. Temper tantrum over, Eric slunk down, exhausted, and pointed off the cliff. "That was what attacked me, Eclipse cast something to make it fly off the cliff."

      "I call the spell, 'Lightwind,' Eric

      Fox looked down the cliff as Eric recovered his bearings. He scanned what was on the ground below the cliff and got on his stomach to get a better look. After about thirty seconds, Fox got to his feet. "What attacked you?"

      About five seconds passed before Eric realized what Fox had said. "What do you mean, what attacked me?!?" Eric shrieked, getting a second wind. "He was right-" Eric had gotten up to investigate why "Fox" wasn't at the foot of the cliff, but he was gone! "- there."

      Eclipse had gotten up to see what was going on. "I don't know," she said. "He definitely fell off that cliff."

      "Well what was it?" Fox asked.

      "Well, how to put this as blunt as possible," Eric interrupted. "He looked exactly like you would on a cocaine high."

      The tension of what had happened, plus the relief that the assailant was gone, caused everyone to burst out in heaps of unintentional laughter.

      "So he looked like me with bloodred eyes?" Fox chuckled, trying to recover from Eric's statement. "Well, it looks like he's gone, so let's get back to camp."

      On the way back Eric was given a stern lecture on not to stray from camp, as people could have robbed it. Eclipse then offered to join the group.

      "Hey, I have nothing better to do," she explained. "And besides, I have no mission to go on.  I might as well help you guys out."

      "And what EXACTLY is your relationship, you two? I mean, hell, Fox, you already have a daughter!" Eric asked.

      "Oh yeah, about that, when Krystal and I had Jade, we - and especially I - realized that I couldn't continue to be leader of the SF team when I had to be at home, helping take care of Jade. Oh, I go back to Dinosaur Planet every chance I get," Fox added hastily, receiving Eric's, "You abandoned your daughter?!?" stare, "But, being forced to travel, I couldn't be there 24/7. I met Eclipse on another mission, and we've been close friends ever since."

      "Riiiiiiiiiiiiight…" Eric muttered.  He had a feeling Fox wasn't being entirely truthful, but Fox was staring Eric straight in the eye, with no signs of lying.

      Scribbling down in his booklet, he added to a journal he started setting out, "Eclipse Passion joins StarFox Fellowship."

      The rest of the week-long journey to the hanger Fox said the Great Fox was parked was uneventful.  Eclipse also said that her ship, the Silver Fox, was also parked there. "Is this some sort of, I don't know, uber-hangar?" Eric asked.

      "Yeah, one of the best in the Lylat System." Eclipse said.

      "We'll be there any minute now, then we can head over to Venom and see what all the fuss is about."

      Eric figured it'd be bustling with activity, but when they finally got there, Eric wasn't sure he was seeing what he was seeing.

      "Uh, Fox?" Eric asked. "Are you sure this is it?"

      Fox and Eclipse were speechless. "Yeah… What the hell happened?" Eclipse said, while Fox cursed in what sounded like DPese.

      "Holy crap…"

      The entire airport was encased in ice.


	10. Winter Wonderland Chapter X

Chapter II

"Uh, Fox?" Eric stammered. "You sure this is the place?"

"Positive, but what happened?" Fox mumbled.

"It's like… something, like it got in the way of a Blizzard spell or something…" Eclipse gasped.

"I'm investigating." Eric said, starting to walk down the slope.

Eclipse started to protest, but Fox could see there was absolutely no hope in arguing with him, so they proceeded to follow him down the grassy hill where it abruptly turned into barren, icy wasteland. Eric started to get goose bumps from the extreme wave of cold that seemed to blast as they crossed the border, while Fox and Eclipse's fur stood on end. Despite the extra warmth that Eric's Matrix-like vest brought, the nippy air around the entombed airport still got to him.

The airport was still a giant building, it just was covered in seemingly endless layers of cold H2O. There was a big door on they're side of the window, plus plenty of spaces for takeoffs and landings. It looked like it would have been a very successful business if the place hadn't been an arctic snow cavern.

The trio got up to the front door while Eclipse cast a small heating spell to melt the ice freezing the door's encoder lock. "Why don't you just cast a giant heating spell and melt this whole place?" Eric demanded.

"Because even that small spell took a lot of effort, something supernatural is going on here," Was Eclipse's retort.

Fox had cracked the code on the door and the door opened. He was about to walk inside when Eric put his hand on Fox's shoulder. "I've seen all these movies, the kid character's invulnerable. I'm going in. Eclipse, give me a light source.

Eclipse cast a flame spell on a stick on the ground and Eric cautiously walked into the dim darkness of the interior of the building. From behind a giant hunk of ice in the center of a barely lit room, there looked like a sword and a bow. Eric thought something… strange… about those weapons, but he took a few more steps forward and thought nothing of it. "Hey you guys, the coast is clear!" Eric called out as he turned around - and gasped in horror as the door slid shut.

"Aw, crap," Eric muttered, dashing to the door. His gut started clenching, half expecting his shades to do the cool thing which warned him of Evil Fox. Pounding on the glass window in the door, Fox was desperately trying to mash the button combination again while Eclipse stared through the glass, apparently conjuring up some incantation, when her iris nearly disappeared as her pupils dilated with fear, when his vision went black and white.

Viewpoint spinning around, oblivious to the sparse amount of light, he saw, all too clearly, the giant hunk of ice that had previously obscured the sword and bow on the wall was getting up, forming a gigantic giant creature, humanoid and with arms that, like giant ice hammers, that looked all to happy to squish Eric into a tiny pancake. Eyepoint snapping back to Eric's position, Eclipse seemed to be trying to scream through the soundproof glass to…

"Dodge?!?" Eric unconsciously muttered, but he needed no second heeding. Flying off to the side, he was only barely missed by the Cone of Cold coming from the crystalline behemoth's mouth.

Scrambling to get up, his booklet came flying out of his pocket and hovered there in front of his face as time halted to a crawl. It was flipping over to another page, hovering there in midair, of it's own accord! It landed on a crude sketch of the creature before him. "Elder Ice Wendigo," it read, in Eric's invented code. An arrow was pointing to the upper part of its head and a circle highlighted his eyes, when the book flew back into Eric's pocket as time flew to normal speed. Getting shakily to his feet, Eric hid behind a steel beam thick enough to conceal Eric's frame. Drawing his blaster, he turned around and fired a few shots at the things eyes.

Of the three shots he fired, one his it's lower chin, and it roared in pain, but still lumbered after Eric like Fat Bastard after babies. The second shot missed it entirely, and Eric knew he had to move quickly or have Eric soufflé smeared over the floor. Firing one last desperate shot he flung himself to the side.

A roar of pain shook the room, making the cold already present in the wintry hanger seem more profound. Turning back, the giant ice giant seemed to be holding its face in pain, and blundering on blindly. Taking the opportunity to run away from the thing, he fired off more shots over his shoulder, blinding panic threatening to take over, and it would have if Eric were more weak-willed.

Spinning around to face the thing, the Elder Ice Wendigo, Eric noticed Eclipse outside trying an incantation on the door, when it was absolutely no hope using the keypad with the door frozen solid. The shades' built-in alarm went off, first staring at the ice below, a droplet of water falling off a few centimeters of ice that threatened to melt in the northwest corner, and the spell Eclipse was about to cast…

"Lightwind… HOLY CRAP!"

In his desperation to put an insulator between him and the ice, he fell over backwards over a rock imbedded in the ground. Eclipse let loose the spell, blowing the door off its hinges and coursing electricity through the frozen water.

Eric would later bemoan Eclipse's stupidity, as it not only got rid of the hole in the ice giant's eye - causing extreme pain in the process, but it could see again - but the voltage coming from Eclipse's devastating area-effect attack ran through Eric's bones. Blinded by the pain, he scurried backwards and emptied his clip blindly at the monster, screaming in terror when, through the black mist, he could make out "0" as the number for how much ammo was in the clip. Standing up and looking to the side in a confused haze, Fox and Eclipse had nearly knocked down the door, too late to do Eric any good.

The wendigo punched Eric in the gut, cracking ribs and (what felt like to Eric, at least,) snapping his back on a metal beam about halfway in the colossal room, Eric felt the red death-haze trying to creep into his mind. As one desperate last-ditch, he flung his gun at the monster and tried to shield his eyes as the creature brought it's foot down onto Eric, who waited for the world to end.

Somehow, it never came. Eric remembered flinging his arm from the left wall towards the door, but he didn't see what happened as he lost consciousness.

Floating in Everspace, or what Eric called his dream world, Eric looked around. He only had the clothes on his back, not his watch, not even his sunglasses that had brought him into this cursed place. The chaotic swirling background flowed around the platform he was on, a surrounding he often likened to with the final boss fight against The Master Hand in SSB. He saw a figure cloaked in a black robe, calling his name.

Eeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiic…

The tone itself haunted him, not because it was hollow, like a ghost's, but because it sounded so much… like Fox's…

Eeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiic…

Fear gripping him, he stepped forward against his will towards the odd person when Eric remembered where he had seen someone in this exact garb.

Eeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiic…

The person who had given Eric his sunglasses…

Eeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiic…

Eric only could see his lower face, it definitely was that of a canine. His upper head was concealed by the hood of a dark brown cloak.

Eeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiic…

Unfortunately for Eric's persual of who had given Eric such a great curse and gift, Fox and Eclipse just then succeeded at reviving him from his induced slumber. Eric's eyes opened slowly and remembered nothing.

Waking up, Eric heard Fox and Eclipse arguing. "We wouldn't know if he's alive or dead!" Fox was complaining. "Those blasted shades, we tried to take them off and he started going from whence he came. He could die, and it's all because I let him come on this stupid adventure!" Fox complained.

"How do you know that's true? Anyway, we can check his pulse, see if he survived. That was a nasty blow he took, certainly not for such a young child…" Eclipse replied.

At this, Eric took yet another blow to his pride and stirred.

"Eric!" They said in unison. Eric tried to stand, but was greeted with an overwhelming pain in his chest and back. Also, Eric noted, Why do I smell like burned flesh?

"What happened?" Eric asked.

"After you succumbed to the giant ice giant, we got the door open. I saw you fling your hands before you passed out, and this sword nearly impaled me." He brought out a marvelous looking greatsword, the blade of which looked like it was crafted from pure diamond. A green gem was imbedded at the end of the handle, and the hilt itself was gnarled into a spiral. Eric remembered it as the one behind the disguised wendigo. "It seemed to fly, almost based on your hand movement," Eclipse continued for Fox. "It sliced off one of its hands, Fox nailed it with several shots to the eyes and a Flame Wave finally melted the thing." Eclipse looked very proud of herself at these last words as Fox set down the sword.

Eric attempted to stand and tried not to scream as his chest howled in agony, his back like molasses. About to fall, Fox helped him to sit down in a chair that looked as if it had gotten cold to the point where thawing it would cause the chair to melt. Eric doubted if he could walk, he had two broken ribs and his back felt like it was on fire.

"Holy crap, is my back broken?" Eric asked weakly.

"No, just dislocated," Was Eclipse's grim reply. "I don't have enough healing magic skills to reset your back…"

"So we'll have to do this the hard way." Fox said. He was about to reset the spine with physical force, but Eric cried out in protest and Fox relaxed. "You can barely walk," Fox complained, tensing up again. "How are you going to get anywhere?"

"I'll manage," Eric gasped, fighting the excruciating pain in his chest from the broken ribs. Trying to stand up, his back gave way and he collapsed.

Whether what happened next was pure luck or the act of a higher power will be left to you.

Upon falling, Eric's hand landed on the hilt of the sword Fox had shown. The blade instantly erupted into bright blue flame, an odd blue glow surrounding Eric. Fox pulled out his blaster, Eclipse readying her staff, but it was a turn for the better when Eric's back magically snapped into place, his crushed and broken ribs mending.

Amidst all this, a figure flashed before Eric, but a cloaked head, nothing more.

Eric stood up slowly to his feet. The foxes relaxed and Eric stood shakily, looking at the weapon Eric could feel had tremendous power.

"Whoa… That was weird." Fox lamented.

Eric tried out some practice swings. The sword was light as a feather, and upon closer investigation he noticed a very faint carving along the blade.

"Murasma," Eric said out loud. As the markings faded, Eric had decided. "That is what I shall call you."

"That… That is no ordinary blade, Eric," Eclipse warned. "I sense enough power there to make evil kings tremble."

"Nifty… Hey, where's my blaster? And the other stick… they got crushed, didn't they?" Fox responded with a nod and pointed to a squished piece of goo and several wooden splinters.

The rest of the group went ahead to explore, and Eric noticed his name being carved on the blade. The end of the name finished and Eric stopped cold, not noticed by Fox and Eclipse.

Fox turned around. "Come on, Eric, we have to figure out what happened here."

"Oh, it's nothing, see? My name is just on the hilt." Eric lied. Sure enough, in bright, fiery crimson letters, was carved Eric.

Continuing forward, Fox didn't see that Eric's hand was covering the other half of the name. Staring blankly at it, feet being dragged forwards, Eric gaped at the rest of the name.

"Eric J. McCloud."

They continued exploring, Murasma providing a much better light than Eclipse's torch had, but Eric couldn't get the name out of his head. …J. McCloud, Eric thought. Eric's middle name was Arthur, but that's part of why he figured that the J. McCloud part of the name was something shocking. His thoughts were interrupted by Eclipse's cry for investigation.

Bringing Murasma up to investigate for better lighting, a bow was off the side. The bow that Eric saw before the Ice Wendigo appeared. Figuring there was more to the bow than met the eye - hell, the diamond sword looked like it could carve through steel like rancid butter and was a useful light source to boot - Eric hoisted the bow, and found both a quiver full of arrows and what looked like Murasma's scabbard. Sure enough, the name _Murasma _was engraved in the scabbard. Eric slung it over his back, and steadied the quiver and aimed the bow.

"How come you get to have the bow, for all we know it could do what Murasma did when it touched you by being wielded," Eclipse said. The bow was very nice indeed, crafted of the finest darkwood, a lightweight material used by druids. Twanging the bowstring, it hummed pleasantly like a violin. Fox and Eclipse tested the bow and they all agreed this was a masterwork creation, if not quite up to Murasma's magical properties. Eric aimed the bow and tested his aim. His mind quickly did an hour's worth of physics lessons, and let the bow fly at a hole in an ice wall. The arrow slid in like a key to a lock.

"Thank you all, I'm here 'til Friday," Eric gloated. After a few minor squabblings, it was agreed that Eric should use the bow for now, as he had no projectile weapon and was a superior shot with it.

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, the wall Eric shot the arrow at just crumbled; unbeknownst to the trio, the arrow knocked aside a key rock to the support of the wall. Fleeing to escape the landslide, dozens upon dozens of ice rocks formed an avalanche that blanketed half the room.

"Hey!" Eric had been the first to turn around and noticed that the ice wall had been concealing another corridor. Slinging his bow over his back and drawing Murasma to light the way, the trio advanced when Eric nearly sprained his ankle in a hole. "One for injuries, aren't I?" Eric complained. "First it's getting my hand eaten alive-" At this Eric shot Fox an angry glance, as if it was his fault. "-Then it was getting smacked and beaten to a crushed pulp, now I nearly sprained my ankle. Isn't this just - Falco!"

There, encased in an icy prison, was Falco Lombardi. Out cold from the freezing temperatures, but if heat was brought…

"Eclipse, heat, now!" Eric screamed. He tried to cut at the ice with Murasma, which (not really to Eric's surprise,) started to melt.

Eclipse launched a fireball at the ice while Eric carved gently, and soon a very soaked avian in shock was at their feet. Fox, meanwhile, was beginning to lose his professional exterior.

"Falco! What are you doing here!" Then, he turned to Eric. "And how did you know his name?"

Eric flashed his booklet in front of Fox's face. "Everything I learn, I put in here. You guys are famous where I come from, didn't you know that?" Eric didn't tell them they're entire lives were video games, he had watched Last Action Hero too many times to know that wouldn't have been a smart move.

Fox had no time to talk about this, as Falco was beginning to stir. Eric took off his jacket to elevate Falco's head, while Eclipse pulled out a blanket to keep him on a warm surface and lit small fires.

Taking Falco's pulse, things weren't very pretty, as Fox soon realized with his fingers at Falco's throat. Falco's heart was beating, but it was slow, as if some of his circulatory system was frozen. Eclipse kept lighting small fires to keep getting Falco's temperature up while Eric place the warm diamond blade of Murasma to Falco's forehead to get him out of the brainfreeze, and slowly but surely, Falco's pulse stabilized.

Falco's response to being revived was less than friendly, however, as Eric soon found out the hard way.

Eyes opening, mumbling, the first thing Falco did was firmly place his hand around Eric's throat. "Monkey!" He gasped. "You'll die!"

Turning blue in the face, and letting Murasma clank to the floor, Eric got the second major beating in twenty minutes as Eclipse attempted to pry Falco's hand loose from Eric's windpipe as Fox started to calm Falco down. "Relax, Falco, it's Fox!" Fox tried to explain before he crushed Eric's throat. "Let him go. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have found you."

It did what it was intended to; have Falco let Eric go. Releasing Eric's trachea before it would close off forever, Falco started to calm down while Eric fell to the floor choking. "That was nice welcome, Falco!" Eric coughed. "And last time I checked, monkeys had fur, you featherbrained avian!"

"So you admit you're related?" Falco said. Eric could tell he was absolutely itching to waltz over to him and rip his skeleton out through his back. "Only distantly. You see, I come from a planet, and a dimension, that I like to call EARTH," Eric emphasized. "I'm here, mainly for kicks, but you see, I'm not that hostile."

Falco looked at Fox. "I checked his record," Fox said simply.

"And what is EXACTLY in that record, Fox?" Eric questioned, still smarting from Falco's attempt to kill him not thirty seconds earlier. "I've been here, what, three days? How is there a record of accomplishments?"

"I don't know how it got there either, from what was there you are a renowned scientist and mechanic with a special interest in virtual reality. And that's just summing it up in a sentence, there were several major accomplishments."

"I see. In the future, I will be VERY interested in finding out just exactly who did put that up there. While the scientist and mechanic part are true, I have no idea how it got into the records. Traveling hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of trillions of miles, and yet, no distance at all, makes it revolutionary for a record to just, 'magically,' appear."

"I have no idea what you're talking about kid, what's your name?" Falco asked crossly.

"I am Eric Shroud."

"And how did you get here?"

"You see these sunglasses?" Eric whipped them off just long enough to begin to vanish from fantasy, then put them back on before he completely departed. "These are what brought me here. Seeing as I've been in more physical pain than I ever could have imagined, I'm wondering if these are more of a curse than a gift, despite a colossal desire to visit this universe."

"Thanks. Is this your sword?" Falco asked. He had been feeling good enough to sit up, as Eclipse kept casting _Mend Minor Injuries _on Falco, one of her few healing spells. Falco was sitting up now, and looked like he could stand on his feet, which gave Eric a crazy (and false) urge to take several steps back, which he resisted.

However, before Falco could come into contact with the sword, a beam of white light sparked from the blade, keeping Falco's hand at bay.

"Whoa… That's weird…" Eric though. He thought to himself, I don't have any problem with them handling it, and when Falco reached for it again, as well as let Fox run his hand along the blade ("This… is really amazing."), no more sparks. To test, Eric thought to himself, I don't want anyone to touch the sword. Sure enough, the white light lanced from the rapier, causing enough pain to get Falco to drop it.

"Hmm… my hypothesis was correct." Eric said out loud, getting a funny look from Fox and an I'm-going-to-crush-your-face-in-if-you-don't-tell-me-what-the-hell's-going-on-here look from Falco. "This truly is my sword, and it will only let itself be picked up by myself and those I silently specify. When the light lanced out, I tested it by thinking that only I would be able to wield the blade, and that's when the light started."

"This… Is really amazing." Fox lamented for the umpteenth time.

Either way, they had been sitting around doing nothing for a while as Falco got up and, while walking, explained the story of his icy entombment.

"I was watching the Great Fox's repairs, right? Suddenly, these ice goblins came along. The guards were panicked, but we've fought enough of them that they squish under my boot ("I've never understood why local authorities can't deal with things like Kobold attacks and Goblin sieges," Eric complained). There was no way how I could take on about eleventeen bazillion of the little buggers, and to make matters worse a giant ice creature ("Wendigo! Giant Ice Wendigo!" Eric indignantly corrected him) waltzed into the place. It had this ice breath, freezing everything in sight. For all I know I'm the only survivor, although Peppy and Slippy were in the Great Fox, maybe they survived. But the place was desecrated, and I have no doubt that the giant ice ("Wendigoooooo!") Wendigo ran into you." Falco described, pausing in frustration at all of Eric's interruptions. "And," Falco added. "Thanks for saving my life. I would have died from the entombment sooner or later, and you saved me."

Eric had a sudden urge to say, "What did you do with Falco!". Falco?!? Recognizing a live-saving attempt?!? He must have changed in those two and a half years… Eric thought.

The corridor ahead bustled with footsteps. Eric drew Murasma, Eclipse readied her staff, Fox unholstered his blaster and Falco looked hopelessly for a weapon to borrow. He settled on picking up a bunch of rocks to chuck at people.

At the end of the corridor, seven small, roughly 3' tall (counting a hunch in their stride) and blue skinned humanoids lumbered up to them. "Ice Goblins!" Eric heard Falco say. Fox was about to pull the trigger when Eric stopped him.

"I want to test out my new toys!" Fox rolled his eyes and agreed, whispering behind Eric's back that if there was any indication that Eric was losing the fight, move in and help him out.

He needn't have worried.

First things first, Eric thought. Sheathing Murasma and pulling out the bow, he fitted two arrows at once a la Legolas. Letting them fly, both found purchase in the cranium space ("Or rather, lack thereof," Eric said later) of the goblins, who slumped to the ground.

Quickly putting back his bow, he unsheathed Murasma and, in pulling it out, bisected a goblin through the middle, then added two swings, horizontal and vertical, lacerating two more. Sliding it through his belt loop, he impaled another one. For a moment, Eclipse thought Eric had forgotten about the seventh one and fired a firebolt at the sneaky devil trying to backstab Eric, who merely twirled the sword around, decapitating the alien creature and casually sliding it back into the scabbard. Before it got there, the firebolt hit the blade of the sword and Eric noticed that the blade's eternal flame grew slightly more intense as it went back into the scabbard. "Piece of cake. Let's move!" Eric called, giddy from the adrenaline rush.

After this, the meaning of why they were here was explained to Falco, and Eric came up with the aforementioned name The StarFox Fellowship. Falco muttered something about Eric spending too much time in Fantasyland, but agreed to join up seeing as he had nothing else to do. Kind of like why I am on this, thought Eric.

They proceeded through the icy caves, Eric wondering how such an airport could have gotten so… dead… like… and stuff. And so quickly. Much to Eric's silent thanks, they ran into no more Ice Goblins and came to a large white door, with another keypad.

"Well, Eric?" Fox asked.

"No way, man. I opened the LAST door, and I got my ass kicked by that giant wendigo thing! YOU open THIS door!"

"Eric?" Fox and Falco said in unison. "This is the Great Fox."

Eric looked up and to the left. Sure enough, complete with the tail at the end of the X, there was Great Fox written on the side. It was so close to the wall it seemed like a regular door.

"Oh. And so it is!" Eric exclaimed. "Uh… I don't know the code…"

"Easily remedied." Eclipse said, punching it in. As soon as the door opened, Eric walked through, and was greeted with a bruised head.

"AAAAAAAAAUGH! GOD… DAMMIT!" Eric cried, holding his head in pain. His eyes opened, or so it seemed, of it's own accord, in the darkness to his left there stood what looked like another frog with a wrench in hand, and a rabbit with a crowbar in one hand and a blaster in the other.

"OW!" Eric said, catching the wrench out of thin air and using his sword to parry the poorly-aimed shots from the rabbits blaster. Eric noted that the sword got even more fiery with each shot. "That really hurt! Honest to god, man, who throws a-" He looked at what was in his left hand. "-a wrench!"

At that moment Fox walked in, whose presence instantly pacified the two assailants. "Fox, where were you!" The hare cried.

"We didn't know when you would show up!" The frog said, with a notoriously high-pitched voice that (Eric noticed) Eclipse twitch her ears and wince slightly. "And who is he!" The toad said, pointing at Eric.

"Don't worry, Slippy, he's a friend." The story of what they had been up to so far was poured out.

"So he's from another dimension?" The hare said, who turned out to be Peppy ("I don't think I ever could have guessed that," Eric mumbled sarcastically, rubbing his skull).

"Yeah. Pretty weird, isn't it?" Fox said.

"Anyway, Fox, we got our shipment of the Essence Bottles!" Slippy said excitedly.

"Back up, Essence Bottles?" Eric asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Technology is getting to the point where we can raise the dead now." Peppy said. He sounded like he'd seen way too much, absent-minded to the point where he'd lose his head if it wasn't screwed on.

"Cooooooooool… wait… why couldn't you just raise Spike?" Eric suddenly realized.

"It costs a lot, the Essence Bottles are fragile, and all but the ones we don't have yet take off abilities the owner had," Slippy explained. "The general public doesn't even like it that much yet. Roughly 5% of the resurrection recipients attributes are reduced; enough resurrections and even their intelligence will be affected. Also, only three planets have even one set up. Corneria, Venom, and an outpost hovering over the surface of Solar."

Ugh… losing his smarts! Eric shuddered at the thought.

"Anyway, there aren't any Resurrection Alters on DP yet anyway." Fox said.

"And why don't you use other ones to raise your parents?" Eric blurted out. The words he instantly regretted, but Fox was more than happy to explain.

"The corpse needs to be recently fresh, and using Essence binoculars to see the dead Remains - another name for Essence - and an Essence Bottle to capture it, then place it in the Alter. A day goes by as the Alter constructs the recipients body, and then they're almost good as new, which is a lot better than being dead. Since that didn't really answer your question, the Remains also lose strength as time goes by before disappearing into nothingness"

"Cooooooooool…" Eric lamented for the second time in fifteen seconds.

"Anyway, we can take you to Venom, you guys," Peppy offered. "Just as soon as we get our ship up and running. You said you were a mechanic?" Peppy asked Eric.

"Yep."

"Good, you can help Slippy."

They started to get to work on repairing the Great Fox when Eric pulled Fox aside.

"Yeah?" Fox asked.

"You open the next door."


	11. Murasma Awakens Chapter XI

Chapter III

Eric and Slippy began repairing the hull, which had gotten smashed and dinged by the marauding Ice Goblins. It didn't take much, but the engines were badly frozen and would take a lot of work. In completing the task, they each taught each other the little tricks of the trade, both amazed at what the other knew. Fox, Falco, and Eclipse explored what was left of the base while Peppy tried to get the communications going. Fox was using Murasma to cut through ice walls, Eclipse used fire magic, while Falco bemoaned not having anything when he stumbled on a cylinder, roughly the size of the cardboard cylindrical tubes that give rolls of paper towels substance, only solid steel with a button on one end. Looking around, Falco pushed the button.

As soon as he pushed the button, it sprouted into a sudden sequence of growth and change. Falco yelled for a second in surprise, but suspecting trouble, the rest of the crew appeared (seemingly out of thin air, Falco thought) from four to fifteen seconds.

The cylinder was changing into an egg-shaped beige-colored object, with a medium-size slit where Falco's hand remained. Buttons and other electrical paraphernalia could be seen through what looked like ventilation slits. Fox and Eclipse readied their weapons, but Eric only stared. He, after seeing The Fifth Element one too many times, knew exactly what it was.

"A Z-1…" Eric gasped. Peppy stared.

"Let me have a look at that," Eric asked. Falco slid it off his arm while Eric examined it. "This is indeed a Z-1…"

"WILL YOU EXPLAIN WHAT THAT IS?!?" The other five people shouted at him. Or, to be more precise, Falco, Fox, and Peppy yelled, Eclipse merely inquired, Slippy squeaked it in a small voice that nobody heard.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, this here is the awesome power of the patented Z-1. Built for righties and lefties, doesn't show up on metal detectors and rounded shape causes it to be easily placed in overhead storage bins," Eric explained in a game-show-host-meets-Fifth-Element-Villain voice. "Several means of alternate fire, starting with the plasma shots that recharge over time. Also worth mentioning is the replay button. One shot-" Eric shot a pillar of ice. "-Press Replay, every subsequent shot returns to the same location." And with that, he started firing randomly, and yet the shots curved in midair to hit the pillar. "And the other features include Rocket Launcher, Dart Thrower, with poison and acid, Net Launcher, Flamethrower - My favorite - and the Freezethrower." These did not come with demonstrations, and when he was done with his Fifth Element rip off, he tossed back the Z-1. "That is one hell of a gun, Falco." Falco was looking at the gun with increased interest, and pushed the button to turn it into the cylinder form, which he pocketed. Eric made a mental note of this additional concealment factor.

With that additional excitement out of the way, the days repairs went slowly. Falco was practically dying of boredom over the next three days as Eric, Slippy and Eclipse (for magic transportation of equipment to save time) worked frantically on ship repairs.

Manipulating a few screws and springs, with Slippy for the stuff that Eric's mind did not comprehend, an, "Alright!" from the Great Fox and the roar of the engines told them they did their job. Fox handed Eric Murasma again as they started to climb in.

"It'll take a few minutes for the engine to warm up, guys, but in the meantime, we are out of here!" Peppy exclaimed, then started working on some maps.

Amidst all of the excitement of being able to leave the forsaken building, and not wanting to get involved, being the hermit he was, Eric walked off to the side and stared at the name on the hilt of Murasma.

"'Eric J. McCloud,'" and then went over every name he knew of that started with J. "James, Josh, uh… Jade…" he added, looking at his mutilated hand. Speaking of which…

He took the bandages off, and lo and behold, the major injuries Jade gave him were gone! The energies which healed Eric's ribs and back must have went the extra mile and helped his hand. Huzzah!

"Jake, uh, crap…" Eric muttered. He thought he heard something in the distance but figured his shades were on too tight around his ears. Then he heard it again and knew something was up.

Bump bum bum bum Bump bum bum bum…

It sounded like war drums, and it kept going, with increasing tempo and volume like…

Bump bum bum bum Bump bum bum bum…

It was getting closer…

Eric sprung to his feet and called for help. Drawing Murasma, he rushed to a large open door and started to close it.

Two blue arrows hit the door where he stood, not two inches from his chest. At the impact point, an icy circle formed as if the arrows froze what they hit. Closing the door, he looked frantically around for something to jam the door with and found it with two long, iron spears. The metal was cold and icy on Eric's exposed hands, and due to a numbness factor Eric had to force the metal as his hands lost strength. Before the door closed, Eric saw something that indicated this would be a hell of a fight.

Eclipse, Falco, and Fox showed up, staff, Z-1, and blaster at the ready, respectively. "What's up?" Fox asked. He was in professional mode, eyes half-mast, as if he was almost bored.

"A bunch of them Ice Goblins, armed with bows that freeze what they hit, and-" Eric sighed with foreboding and dread. "-Another Wendigo."

Standing back, Eric in front, Falco and Fox shoulder to shoulder right behind him and Eclipse in the back for some serious magic ("No more Lightwind, ok?") while Eric put away Murasma and drew the bow, aiming at the attempts to get through the door and keep them there. Fox was calling to get the Great Fox ready, only to receive bad news.

"It's still warming up! We won't be able to get it running for 45 seconds!" Came Slippy's desperate reply.

45 seconds… that can mean the difference between life and death! Fox seemed to be thinking the same thing as Eric, as he dropped the professional facade for a split second to reveal a face of worry. Fleeing would do no good until it was practically ready, as the GF was six seconds away and they had to wait for 45. Great.

A goblin head poked through a hole they made in the door, and was greeted by an arrow from Eric's end. Another head poked through as the door started to crack and bend. It wouldn't be long before it burst into melee. Fox fired a blaster shot and Falco put through a few Z-1 shots into the portal when it burst.

Eric quickly drew Murasma, then awkwardly tried to sling the bow over his shoulder. He succeeded, but took two dagger slashes to his right shoulder and then had Murasma secured firmly in both his hands. Eclipse let loose with a bright flash and the front ranks fell, but they were writhing on the ground. Thrusting to and fro, Eric managed to impale one goblin before one suddenly got flung out of the way by a huge icy hand. Looking up, Eric nearly fainted.

An ice wendigo, even bigger than the one at the entrance, had ripped itself its own in the door. It started to bring its hand down and Eric dove between its legs, giving a futile swing at its foot. It started hopping around, squashing goblins as an ice arrow hit Eric's shoulder. Instantly that side went numb; Eric felt barely able to hold his sword, let alone swing it. Pulling the arrow out (and leaving a good spurt of the red stuff over the wall) Eric swung for the center of an archer and barely was able to prevent the sword from flying out of his hands. He transferred it to his left hand and headed back to see how his friends were doing in time to see the Wendigo breathe an icy stream of frost at Eclipse and to gasp in shock as a disfigured cube of ice surrounded her, entombing her on the spot. Eric thrust the sword into the wendigo foot, but on a size basis, he might as well have been using a dagger.

The wendigo thwomped around in pain, flinging Eric off to the side knocking the wind out of him. He was starting to get some grip in his right arm, but he still had trouble moving it and the constant spurts of blood were no help. Eric didn't even have an idea his body had that much, but it was pumping like a fire hydrant with no look of stopping. Eric started to feel lightheaded, but continued to gore a goblin through the middle. His right side was stained a bright crimson as he took another arrow through the middle, while Fox and Falco were being hopelessly overwhelmed by goblin daggers.

In a blind spurt of rage, Eric spin-swung and bisected two goblins through the middle. Eclipse took two frozen arrows to her encased arm and that section of the ice cube started seeping red. Eric thought he was imagining things, but it looked like Eclipse's face had started to get contorted in agony.

Falco managed to get away from the marauding mob and fired a flamethrower blast at Eclipse, melting it almost instantly. Her fur was soaked in ice to the point that she didn't feel the fire, let alone catch her fur on it. Eric was swinging desperately, but the heroes looked like they were going to fall when Eric's incredible luck kicked in again.

Climbing a ladder, Eric had pulled out the bow and inserted two arrows neatly into the wendigo's crystalline eyes. It grabbed part of some chains normally used for holding up personal aircraft, like an ArWing. Swinging it at Eric, who dodged it with a mile to spare, and it crushed almost all of the ceiling by the entrance, rubble irreparably blocking the door. With only eight goblins in the room, Eclipse mustered what was left of her strength and took out four with a flame jet and Falco spewed phototronic plasma like a smashed fire hydrant.

It proved that this giant foe alone was more than a match for the battered team. Eric could feel blackout coming, Eclipse had two deep gashes that were going to need a little bit more than a band-aid, and Fox had numerous cuts. Falco was hurt more badly than Fox, but ego permitted him to act and use clothing to conceal most of his blood-matted feathers.

Falco fired a few rockets at the wendigo, but it only succeeded in shattering part of its leg. Flamethrower had limited range, and when something can crush you like an insect even the testosterone-driven mind of Falco Lombardi knew it's limits: getting close enough to use the flamethrower was asking for a messy death. Eclipse kept nailing it with was looked like Lightwind, only with fire, and explosive fireballs, but it kicked at the ground. The rubble rushed up, interrupted Eclipse's assault and knocked Fox out.

"Curse this blasted thing!" Eric raged as he nocked another arrow. "If only Krystal or Sarah was here, that'd even up the odds!"

The wendigo reached back and swung the chain again at the area Eric was standing on. With not a second to lose, Eric ran the length of the chain as the platform crumbled into dust. Drawing Murasma with the bow awkwardly in his still-numb right hand, he sank it deep into the wendigo's head. It flung around in agony as Fox fired multiple blaster shots to keep it confused, while Eric took a long, fifteen-foot fall to the floor. Writhing on the ground, Falco dragged him to safety while Fox's legendary aim kept it from advancing.

"IT'S UP!" Slippy's voice could be heard yelling. Huzzah! Now to escape!

Half walking, half crawling, Eric limped to the ship. Eclipse muttered some incantation and Eric's shoulder closed, although it still hurt. But at least he wasn't loosing any more blood. Fox and Falco, being faster than Eric and Eclipse, made it to the ship first as the engines started rearing to go. Eclipse, who was (for the most part) uninjured also made it to the ship and threw herself into the side door, but poor Eric was nearly left behind! He climbed in as the door started to close and held there for dear life, bow and sword slung over his back.

The wendigo, without the sting of Fox's blaster had advanced, swinging its chained hand wildly. Fox slid the door open and started firing, Falco, who was about to deactivate the Z-1, hit the thing in the chest and turned on replay. The stream of bullets was a wonder to behold, but in a last act of defiance it chucked the chains at the rear of the Great Fox and held on tight. The engines started to overload, unable to keep up with such weight. Swallowing his fear for the second time in three days, Eric jumped out of the side and slid to the back of the engines. The group called, but Eric's blood was pounding in his ears. The Great Fox was starting to be pulled back as Eric drew Murasma and sliced the chains. The wendigo shouted with fury as his grip stopped, and Eric held on for dear life as things became smaller and smaller. The sudden acceleration took him by surprise, however, and as he turned to get back onto the ship, he lost his grip and proceeded to fall into the jungle abyss a good two miles away from the hangar below.


	12. Serving time in Hell Chapter XII

Chapter III  
  


      Eric's life was flashing before his eyes. The few highlights, like when he was staring at his blue ribbon for his science project - BEFORE he got canned, shone for a split second before he winced at getting his ass kicked again by the local street thugs. As the trees came at a shocking velocity, shut his eyes tight and braced for the impact.  
Landing on a roof of leaves, dense enough to slow Eric's fall, but not enough to support him,

      Eric felt like he was falling through a layer of pillows, only it hurt a lot more, he thought he heard stuff breaking and was getting scratched up by the many twigs.  
      Screaming in pain and fear, Eric then fell the remaining thirty feet to the ground. He was an absolute mess, his leather jacket was torn to shreds, jeans looked like something straight out of Goodwill and shoes were flaking off everywhere. Crimson streaks stained any exposed skin, and his hair... you wouldn't be able to tell the difference how little he combed it, but it looked like a wig of tangle wire.  
      Eric spent a good two minutes writhing in agony, crying out in pain. Putting weight on his leg just worsened the chronic throbbing; he must have fractured it. His skin stung, the bow was jetting into his back and the handle of the sword snapped at his neck. He felt whiplash coming on...  
     Limping on the side, and leaning on Murasma for support (which had mysteriously changed in color from blue to red) Eric stepped out, screaming every step of the way, to look for something to signal Fox and the others from the ground. Looking up, it'd take something; the leaves created a barrier that almost stopped light.  
A shadow fell behind Eric that rustled leaves. More appeared in a stalking ambush.  
  
(Aboard the Great Fox)  
     "DAMN!" Fox cursed. "Rob, scan that forest!"  
     "Affirmative." Rob droned on monotonely.  
     They were worried. No one could survive a fall like that unless all those leaves were piled thick and landed on soft ground. And successfully rolling with the fall to soften the impact, and judging from Eric's failing he didn't do any of it which would require skill. Hold on, Fox thought.  
     "Scanning response. Unidentified object- ("That would be Eric!" Eclipse said hopefully) "-and several other figures closing in. DNA of unidentified object-   
     "We know!" The group cried in unison. "What are the other things!"  
     "The DNA matches with lightfoot dinosaurs."  
  
(In the forest below)  
     Eric had to sit down onto a log, he couldn't bear the pain anymore. He lay down, and felt like just sitting there and going to sleep until his leg healed crooked and spent the rest of his life running in circles. Concentrating on silence, there were some rustling of the leaves which perked up Eric's attention.  
     It was in front of him - then disappeared. Then behind - a shadow fell. It was maddening and Eric could do nothing about it. Someone or something - or plural - was stalking him!  
Fear was beginning to ensue. Blinding abject panic! Running as fast as his destroyed body would carry him, he tripped over an outstretched root. Pain wracked his body in a choke hold and wasn't letting go. A shadow fell over Eric as he tried to roll over and see what it was.  
     A dinosaur, slightly smaller than Eric and light brown, with feet that looked both quick and powerful. Painted markings marked its chest as it reared up on it's toes. It walked on its hind legs and didn't look very friendly.  
     "Nxuk aj kxaj Venomian medboo teadw ad eih neet?!"  
More of the creatures came up. "Venomian jsim!"  
     "Kxaj edo'j tavvohodk..."  
     "Xo'j nakx Venom! Bacc xam!"  
     "ODEIWS! No nacc kubo xam rusb ke kxo sumf vdt kehkiho xam idkac xo kucbj ureik Venom's ussojj setoj. No bacc xam av xo's idseefohukalo, amjhajed xam av dek."  
As they were saying this, it sounded like all they were talking in was harshness, and then Venom kept coming up... Suddenly, they swooped at him! Eric covered his eyes and waited for the end.  
     Opening an eye, Eric peered around. One of the creatures cut off Murasma's scabbard. Despite Eric's silent pleas, ("No one can use that but me!") the scabbard was too much of an insulator. He was being lifted up onto a stretcher, being unable to walk. He kept getting catches of DPese, but was almost relieved he was getting carried somewhere. Almost, the creatures (Eric heard the word, "Lightfoot,") kept talking about Venomian this and Venomian that.  
     The Lightfoots brought him to what looked like a large camp. Fires were lit everywhere, and the party that had him in their power started gloating. "No'lo josihot u Venomian fhajedoh! Mubo Nuo!"  
     Dragging Eric along (and confiscating Murasma, no less,) Eric was unceremoniously dumped into a dark gray stone cell. A lone window, not a square foot big, allowed light into the room. It actually took Eric's mind off of his leg for a second.  
As the Lightfoot left the prison, leaving what looked like a crude soup for a meal, he said one thing as a parting shot while Eric writhed on the ground in agony.  
     "Kemehhan, ufo, oei tao!"


	13. Blue fox Rescue Mission Chapter XIII

Chapter IV

(Aboard the Great Fox)

"Get us down there!" Fox ordered. "Rob, how far is it to the nearest sufficient landing point from where Eric fell?"

"Distance to nearest sufficient landing point: approximately three miles."

"DAMN! So be it! Take us down there!"

"Roger that."

"Come on, now, Fox, and be reasonable!" Peppy argued. "Five in the hand is worth one in the bush tenfold!"

"You listen here, Peppy." Fox started. "He risked his life to save ours. We could still be back fighting… that… thing… and he cut those chains and risked his life. I don't know about you, but that's friendship. The least we can do is check and see if he's still alive."

"He fell a god damn half mile!" Falco shot back. "The odds of him surviving are virtually nil!"

"I hate to break up your politics meeting, but that is Tookanuh Forest." Slippy piped up. "The leaves that form the forest's roof are said to be so thick that they can stop falls from up to the atmosphere. There's hardly any daylight down there, and the nights are pitch black! Eric would have to have fallen from outer space to be killed. My guess is his fall was softened by the leaves and then just took a painful thirty feet to the ground."

"Exactly! I knew that." Eclipse lied. She was on Fox's side. "He's likely trying to signal us, good luck trying to get us from underneath that roof. And what friends can we call ourselves? We'd to the same for each other!"

"Um, guys?" Slippy started to ask.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Falco grumbled. "He'll owe us later though."

"Guys?!?" Slippy said, with increasing urgency.

"We'll set up a search party going through the forest, stay frosty and look for Eric. And, if he's lost it like he did his stick and blaster back in the hangar, look for Murasma, it'll be close by."

"GUYS!!" Slippy yelled, getting everyone's attention. "That forest is TOOKANUH FOREST," he repeated. "The odds of finding someone or something in there are on par with a needle in a haystack blindfolded. Even if we did find him, we'd have a hell of a time getting out of there because it's crawling with Venomian Hostile Lightfoot dinosaurs. They're paranoid, so they might mistake us for Venomian spies, and then there are a lot of mistakes that can be made regarding Eric and Venomian monkeys. Remember the incident with Jack eight years ago?"

Fox laughed in spite of his nervousness. He wouldn't easily forget what happened THERE… Katt was still fuming at how late Jack was. But that is irrelevant to this current state of events.

"It's decided. We'll go in, see if we can find Eric. If we can't within eight hours after sunrise, we'll leave without him. There's no other way."

(In a very dank, dark, prison cell some half a mile below…)

An hour passed before the excruciating pain in Eric's leg turned into a heavy throb. Looking around, he was in a stony jail cell, with one locked door and a window the size of a square foot. Barred, unfortunately. What little light was previously allowed to penetrate the leaf roof was blocked by the seemingly soundproof stone walls of his cell. It was pitch black outside, a sign that it was nighttime. Inside his cell, small, crude torches lit.

Taking every effort to avoid putting weight on his shattered leg bones, he limped around trying to see what he still had. Not much: a sloppy soup and the clothes on his back. He had absolutely nothing else besides the sunglasses and his booklet.

THE BOOKLET! Eric frantically looked through it, hopefully something he had written down would allow him to be able to escape! In a musty tome of useless information, when you are suddenly thrust into one of the worlds where that useless information was gained… suddenly, it doesn't seem so useless.

Spelunking through its pages and pages, Eric nearly gave up hope - Until he got to the western chapter. Thinking that absolutely nothing would come of it, he read the last page - and saw the light. Thank you Shanghai Noon!

Eric cast off his jacket aside and his shirt into a depression in the floor, probably for water. Whatever it's use, it was useless, so Eric had to improvise. Pouring the (stinky, watery) broth from the soup into the indentation, there was barely enough to thoroughly soak the shirt. Now to find something to use as a lever… He had lost his stick, and the cell was nearly barren. "Damn Murphy's Law!" Eric cursed aloud, but stopped from further profanities in fear that the guards would hear him, investigate, and have him starved. A soup pot handle… hmm… Re-reading The Count of Monte Cristo had its advantages…

He heard the people coming. He immediately put the bowl in the doorway and hid the shirt. He put his jacked in and zipped it up, then lay unceremoniously on his cot.

The guard who was in charge of Eric came in and the first thing he did was firmly plant his foot where the bowl was: Right where Eric had calculated. Success! The Lightfoot, however, was not amused.

"NXUK NUJ KXUK VEH!" The Lightfoot bellowed. "Den ceeb nxuk oei'lo tedo!" The Lightfoot was pissed, mainly at Eric for clumsiness, but at himself for not paying attention. "Vado. Ijo kxo fek. Ak ned'k mukkoh! Oei tao kemehhen!"

It took all of Eric's willpower not to say, "Yeah, whatever." Taking the soup pot as the guard left, he poured all of its contents on his shirt to keep it dry. Tying it around the bars and twisting with all of his might, most of the watery broth came out of the shirt. But it wasn't ripping any further, and after putting weight into it, the bars were bending!

This was taking time. Too much time. Not only was the sun starting to rise, from thinking, boredom, and getting his meal, but progress was exceedingly slow. It didn't help that Eric was starving in addition to his leg reacting like Greenpeace to a Sizzler buffet. It very much wanted to lie down and wither into nothingness, but Eric kept trying at the window.

There was now some decent light out, as decent as you can possibly get in Tookanuh, and the bars were open enough for Eric to try crawling through! He would have to be quick though. The guards were coming to deliver meals!

Eric got his head through no problem. Squeezing his shoulders proved to be a bit difficult, but he was so close on so little time!

Thump… thump… thump… Lightfoot feet kept hitting the stone, getting louder! Sucking in his gut, he managed to get halfway through, but his hip was stuck!

Time froze as the door opened. The Lightfoot stared for a split second as it dawned on him in the daylight. The spilled soup… the shirt cast aside… and the soup pot.

"UCUHM!" The Lightfoot bellowed. Instantly the tribe was awake! Slipping his feet through, seemingly shattering his ribs in the process, he fell on his bad leg. He barely felt it, he was free! If he couldn't escape quickly enough, however, it would all be for naught.

Limping through the bustling camp, arrows flew, nearly spearing him through the head, ending the life of Eric Shroud. But he kept running through, and almost stopped dead when he noticed part of his leg bone was poking through the skin and his jeans!

Voice lost on a soundless scream, Eric's luck ran out when he toppled headlong into a guard. Turning around, he was completely surrounded. Putting his hands up and making feeble gestures of innocence, the butt of a spear separated him from his senses.

(About two miles away, airborne.)

"Ceeb Krystal! Ad kxo Scouhadw! Kxuk'j Eric!"

"Kubo ij tend, Kyte! Ak mijk ro xam!"

(On Tookanuh Forest, three miles away from Eric's imprisonment.)

"Ok, guys." Fox whispered, not wanting to attract anything.

"And girls," Eclipse said acidly. It was Fox, Falco and Eclipse while Slippy and Peppy gave radio information.

"Remember, keep an eye out for Eric and any signs that he's nearby. No flashlights, it'll attract stuff. If we must negotiate, we have this." He pulled out a translator. "Come on, move out!"

(Eric)

Eric woke up tied - no, staked - to a tree. At first, Eric could only stare at his hands in shock, but he could see where they used torches to burn-close the giant nail wound through his hands. Then the pain set it, and a Lightfoot jabbed Eric in the stomach with a spear to get him to shut up from the pain.

"Uchawxk, jfo, oei'll walod ij odeiwx kheirco! Semo fousovicco udt kxoho nacc ro de fhercom! Fohjajkudso nacc wok oei vuh rik no'lo xut odeiwx ev kxaj wumo!"

"I don't have the slightest idea on what you are saying." Eric pleaded. He had a very good feeling he was going to die here, and Eric's instincts were rarely wrong.

"Oei bden kxo cudwiowo, reo, jfoub!" The Lightfoot prodded Eric again.

"Oey beden… what?!?" Eric cried out.

Eric couldn't tell if the lightfoot sighed in impatience, laughter, or elation at what he was going to do next. Pulling out a knife, he walked up to Eric and slashed him across the middle.

"AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!" Eric howled in pain. His mind was on fire, then it clicked.

The dagger was poisoned! Judging by the way his mind kept fighting every thought to escape, the poison must have been something that made its recipient more suggestive to interrogation. Much as it was a relief to know that he wasn't going to die…

"Jkacc voocadw tovaudk, ufo?" The Lightfoot smeared. Eric was writhing in his constraints. The Lightfoot went back over and applied another dose of what looked like red stew to the blade. The blade now looked startlingly like Murasma's after falling out of the tree, its hue was so red.

Yeah, Murasma. The one thing that could probably get him out of this mess, and it was god knows where.

(Just outside the camp.)

"Kyte, jukuo xoho. No'cc semo rusb ke wok oei. A doot ke wok Eric. Jkuo eik ev jawxk." A shadowy figure said to a Cloudrunner.

Sneaking through the brush, the sleek figure crawled through the underbrush, sneaking through buildings to avoid being seen by the wayward lightfoot.

"ADKHITOH!" She heard get called out. Shoot. No time. Pulling out what looked like a quarterstaff in the shadows, she fired a bluish dart.

The Lightfoot headed for the alarm went down like a sack of bricks.

On the left wall of the small shack she was in, she lit the end of the stick. A large broadsword, in its scabbard, and a composite longbow were tied up on the wall. Quietly slinging them over her shoulder, the figure creeped to the center encampment and beheld the terrifying spectacle of Eric's torture. They were still slashing at him with knives, and Eric felt both lightheaded from loss of blood and began to not feel the slashes anymore.

The figure stepped out into the clearing and thrust the staff into the ground with surprising force. Eric had enough strength to lift his head up and gasp.

"Krystal?!" Eric could barely get the strength to say her name, he was in far too much pain. Strange, she wasn't in her usual garb of a bikini, but was instead in a combat fatigue top and brown pants.

"Cok zam we!" Krystal bellowed.

"Udekxoh edo!" A Lightfoot gasped. "Kxaj edo ajd'k ud ufo!"

"Giood ev Dinosaur Planet semmudtj oei ke vhoo oeih sufkalo!"

"Dek idkac xo koccj ij nxuk xo bdenj! Xo'j u Venomian jfo!"

Krystal had seen what they did to Eric and decided to back out the hard way. Pulling out the sword, she threw it expertly at Eric. Realizing what it was (Murasma) Eric concentrated. Some of the red glow faded a bit as it telekinetically moved to sever the stakes. Blood gushed like a fountain as Eric grabbed the sword and cut the ropes. Krystal was already running to Eric, getting him out of the camp. Turning, she pulled out her staff.

"Ag ma guire ma tas, mans vaire…" Krystal muttered. It was not DPese, it sounded like a spell incantation.

Eric felt his cuts heal up at the end of the incantation, and his leg felt better, but the broken one still had the bone poking through the skin and any weight on it caused Eric to stumble.

"Come on!" Krystal called. All that happened in about five seconds, and already Lightfoot threatened to surround them.

Limping behind following Krystal, holding his sword, he heard Krystal call something in DPese before taking an arrow to the right arm and a short spear to the left leg. Turning around, Eric timed a swing at a flying spear, slicing it in half and falling on his bad leg. Pain wracked his body when he felt a something grab him by his coat and haul him upwards. Holding onto Murasma, he was flying up, up…

He looked up and saw Krystal, barely hanging onto the back of Eric's jacket, flying on a Cloudrunner. Eric noticed that it was the one he jumped onto back in the Capital City. Eric had no time to try to say anything, just held onto the Cloudrunner's leg for dear life while it sped away, leaving the Lightfoot dinosaurs in an array of fierce anger. Many were being sent out, looked like they were going to get Eric when he fell off. But Eric was free! Sheathing Murasma and running it through a belt loop to prevent it from falling, Krystal accidentally dropped the bow. Eric caught it and held on as the Cloudrunner continued flying and dodging spears and arrows.

"Eric, that looks like the Fox, Falco and Eclipse!" Krystal called down after perhaps seven minutes of flying. More and more Lightfoot seemed to be appearing out of nowhere in front of them…

"And so it does!" Eric grunted, noticing the three people on the edge of the horizon.

"Kyte, wok eloh kxoho uj vujk uj fejjarco!" Krystal called to her mount.

Kyte sped up, easily outrunning the pursuing Lightfoot. Upon getting there, Eric unceremoniously dropped to the ground and staggered to his feet. His good one, anyway.

"Eric! We were looking for you!" Eclipse said while Falco looked both glad and haughty at the same time.

"Yeah, yeah, we found him, now what?" Falco snarled.

"No time!" Krystal and Eric said in unison. "We have maybe, what, two hundred angry Lightfoot guys after us!" Eric continued.

"Kyte, go home!" Krystal ordered. The Cloudrunner flew off.

"The Great Fox is that way, and if what you say is true, we better hurry up!"

Dashing through the forest, with Eric half-hopping, half-limping the Great Fox loomed closer as they leaped over a stream (Eric fell through it). 100 yards… The bloodthirsty hoard was dangerously close… 50 yards… 20 yards…

They made it through, just missing the next spear by millimeters. Slippy and Peppy were long since ready to take off, flying out of the clearing they had parked and into space…

Eric spent the next eight hours either eating, or being attended to by Krystal's healing magic. Much pain, a cast and about twenty stitches later, it looked like Eric was going to recover, but most of the day ("space cycle," Fox corrected) for Eric was spent sleeping.

The news was good. General Pepper had promised to take care of Jade so that Krystal, never one to miss out on anything, could accompany them in investigating the increased Venomian activity. When Eric asked (rather bluntly) why Pepper offered to do this ("Doesn't he have better things to do?") Krystal's response was that it wasn't actually Pepper who would be doing the caring, it would be one of his retired officials who volunteered. Kit lover, no doubt, Eric thought.

On another high note, Sarah appeared shortly after Eric was able to walk on his right leg again.

"What are you doing here?" Eric blurted out.

"To stop you from doing anything stupid, Eric, and judging by your garb, I'm a bit too late." She said sarcastically.

"I thought this was too crazy for you…" Eric said.

"I swallowed my fear, just put on the sunglasses and came here. By the way, what happened?"

Eric told her.

"Someone really needs to look out for you, I'd hate to be the one to go to your parents with your death certificate."

Eric didn't really have a good comeback for that, so after some uneasy explanation of why Sarah appeared out of thin air ("We just have to think about our destination, apparently she thought of where I was," Eric explained) The total StarFox Fellowship was Eric, Sarah, Fox, Eclipse, Falco, and Krystal.

Most of the next few cycles went uneventfully, until a sudden jolt rocked the back of the ship.

Checking sensors, radiation degree showed a white hole exit at the end of view. Coming through it, just bad news.

"YEEEEEEEEEE HAAAA! Been a while, hasn't it, McCloud!" The face of Wolf O'Donnell appeared on the communication plate of the Great Fox.

More bad news. "Payback time, Lombardi!"

"Time to squeeeeeeeeeeal…"

"I'll think I'll take frog's legs…"

"Perfect time for the SW team to show up…" Fox muttered. "Rob! Open the doors! We're taking-" Fox stopped short as the electric lights went out.

"What the…!" Fox yelled.

"The bomb rendered the power null. We have oxygen, but almost everything else is gone."

"Great," said Fox, sweating, when Eric suddenly realized something. Something about the way the walls of the Great Fox started to cave in slightly or go convex… Something Eric didn't know. And he felt lightheaded… When it hit him.

"Fox… The vacuum support is gone."


	14. Enter Starwolf Chapter XIV

Chapter V

"What?! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?!" Sarah's voice sounded freakishly high. "No vacuum support, means no air, means…" Sarah continued to trail off into unspeakable atrocities.

"Sarah, 50 years of pulp fiction to the contrary, being in a vacuum does NOT cause you to turn inside-out and explode." Eric said, trying to fight his voice from going the same way.

Sarah looked at Fox, who nodded.

"It just causes your body fluids to boil away."

At this information, Sarah's panicked look started to come back in. Eric was getting his, "I'm about to do something so insanely suicidal, it just might work," glint in his eye, like back when he saved Jade, as Wolf's voice came back onto the comlink.

"You aren't the only one with a fancy ship now, McCloud!" He sneered. Eric had to fight a crazy urge to take his sword and slice the control panel to pieces. He drew his sword and tossed the bow and arrows to Sarah and didn't notice when the arrow's point erupted into flame and the bow sprouted short, curved blades at the ends. "This is the Cerberus!" Wolf continued to gloat. "And I'm willing to bet that nifty sword your buddy has there ("He looks a bit like me," Andrew felt inclined to point out behind Wolf's shoulder) that it far surpasses the Great Fox!"

"What makes you think you can have my sword!" Eric said, none to pissed off at how he was really having to inhale to get some breath. "The only way you will ever be able to have this baby is when I die, you pry this from my lifeless carcass and feed me to the buzzards."

"Accepted. You now have two choices.," Wolf growled, taking his attention away from Murasma. "Lay down your weapons and be taken, or die a painful death from the vacuum of space." Wolf's voice was dangerously sulky and deep.

"We'll get him." Fox said. Eric, in the short time (about three weeks) he had known him, he had NEVER seen Fox so pissed off. Gritting his teeth, Eric knew he was about to do something he would regret later. "Drop your blasters."

"WHAT?!?" Was the collective reply. The rest of the group burst into argument, then stopped abruptly as Sarah poked Eric.

"WHAT IS IT NOW?!?" Eric exploded. He had far too many things on his hands, Sarah nearly cowered as the pressure on the ships computer started to hit 75%… 74%… 73%…

"Look…" Eric finally got a good shot at the glimpse of the bow's transformation. Not only had a small cut on Sarah's cheek had abruptly gotten healed, but the bow now had a carving right above where you would put your hand that said, "Beamstriker," and the arrow she had nocked had erupted into blue flame and small, curvy swords that had sprouted from the ends of the bow seemed to bathe Sarah is warrior light. Eric would have had more time to be amazed if it wasn't for their life-and-death situation.

"Much as I'm enthralled," Eric said sarcastically. "We have more important things on our hands. Anyway…" Then turned to rag on Fox, who had dropped his blaster and clenching his jaw.

"You can't just _surrender_…"

"This is stupid."

"No, Fox!"

"Fox, don't give up! Trust your instincts!"

"Do you really think they'll let us live?!?"

"By the sands of Allahor, Fox, keep your head up and DO something!"

"Like WHAT?!?" Fox exploded. "There's nothing we CAN do! Our weapon systems are down and none of what we have are going to take them! Wolf is smarter than that, he's never going to open the Tractor Beams on that ship without our being disarmed."

"You know what, Fox?" Eric was looking like he knew exactly what he was going to do that was suicidal and insane. "You give up. Right know. I expect you in the Cerberus' prison chambers, ready for saving."

"What the…?" Fox said. The rest of the group had lay down their weapons, with much grumbling, complaining, and talk about Fox just giving up.

"Good…" Wolf said, smiling his dubious smile about final triumph. Eric felt the pressure around him stabilize as the Cerberus fired its Tractor Beams to bring the ship in, EMP it and take hostages. Right as the door was about to open, Eric sprung into action.

Throwing his legs out from under him, Eric grabbed Fox's blaster and fired three shots into the screen with Wolf's face. He managed to get out, "What the…?" Before everything went black and fuzzy. Dropping the gun and picking up his sword, Eric heard the door open and fighting go on behind him. Dashing into the escape pod room, he prepared to rocket out of the door as the airlock closed behind him.

"Okay Eric, the moment of truth. Getting total strangers out of the third mess in three weeks. Let's roll!" You probably know the exploits he was referring to. Hitting the button, the escape pod floated out of the ship as Eric opened his mouth and started slowly exhaling. The biting cold of space got to him, but there was enough warmth from the engine of the Cerberus, which, Eric noticed, was pumping heat like a furnace. Must have a hell of a coolant system. Another thing Eric noticed that it wasn't just bigger than the Great Fox, it was HUGE, at least twice the size of the Great Fox. No problem finding anything in there, Eric thought bitterly.

Floating out from the tiny hole in the Great Fox, the escape pod vaporized when the Cerberus' lasers shot out. The few molecules left would not hit a planet for millions of years. Eric had suspected this, a diversion in case the radar picked him up. The radiation resulting from the blast would scramble radio signals for a couple of minutes.

Floating free fall, Eric noticed Fox and the rest of the group walking through the Tractor Beams and some (very) beat up crew wolves poking them with the barrel of blasters. Andrew was bringing up the rear with their weapons, doing everything in his power not to touch the Beamstriker, which was shocking him every time his hand drew near.

Almost there… Eric's blood was pounding in his ears when Fate decided to deal him a hand of cards. 

He was going to miss if he didn't do something! 

Reaching out with Murasma and praying like crazy he wasn't that far off, he scraped around the side of the ship creating just barely enough friction to move into the airlock of the ship. Thankfully, Destiny was also on his side as Eric had used the flat of the blade, creating friction but not cutting the ship. Fifteen seconds… Eric's lungs started to protest. Floating to the end of the ship to hit the button, the door started to close.

Twenty-five seconds. He couldn't open the next door or he'd take down the entire ship - and his friends with him. His lungs began to burn.

Thirty seconds, the door was half closed. Close, you stupid thing, close! Keeping perfectly still in the zero-grav space to preserve what oxygen was left, he closed his eyes and attempted to relax every muscle in his body.

He failed. Forty seconds… Eric wouldn't have been surprised if his eyeballs had started to implode. The door closed at fifty seconds, with Eric taking breaths prior to it being closed and paying for it in extreme pain. Sucking on blessed oxygen from the door closing, Eric stood up.

Opening up the door to the main ship, Eric could hear voices. One of which belonged to Wolf, the other one was with Pigma. Eric couldn't make them out, but Eric noticed something odd.

Where was Leon?

Peeking through corners, Eric thankfully didn't run into everyone until he hit two signs, one of which said, "Bridge," the other one led to the prison cells.

"I wonder," Eric muttered sarcastically, and sped off to the right in search of the prison cells and came to an abrupt halt at three lasers trapping a corridor. The stench of death and rotten food wafted towards him through the hall. Picking up a wrench off to the side, he chucked it at one of the guns projecting the lasers. It split in half as it went through the deep crimson of one of the beams, and the two pieces knocked out one of the traps. Stuck with no more wrenches, and with voices all around, Eric was stuck with another thing to pick up and throw when his gaze fell upon the now sheathed Murasma.

There's definitely more to this blade than meets the eye. I can only wonder what…" He started fiddling with it and nearly slitting his finger open running his digit on the razor-sharp diamond blade, while at the same time wondering why the flame didn't set him on fire. It was a cool flame, at below room temperature, with an almost hypnotic dance to it.

You can imagine his concern when he let it fall and the blade broke off cleanly from the hilt.

"No, no no! Crap!" Eric cried in despair. Unarmed and without a sense of direction were not the way to go. Out of sheer desperation, he tried forcing it back into it's place in the hilt and gasped when he heard an audible, "click."

Blade goes in, blade comes out, blade goes in, blade comes out, Eric thought, fooling with it some more. Homer J. Simpson memorial. Getting ideas from this, he picked up the detached blade and chucked it at the camera/laser trap. Bisecting the trap, Eric expected it to clamor off of the ceiling, but it came back in a smooth boomerang, cutting the other one. "Cooooooooool…" Eric said, gaping at his blade. Dashing through the long corridor, at a three way intersection the two unexplored areas went to a dank and smelly door, which you didn't have to be Isaac Newton to know that it led to the prison cells, and another hallway which, judging by the smells of food, went to the kitchens.

"How does Wolf get this stuff?!?" Eric muttered. "I mean, evildoers have less money than heroes because…" Then stopped. No. Villains tend to have more money because they don't have to work for it, explaining why Wolf and Co. had henchmen.

Opening the sliding door into the prison room, three boar-like guards held the rest of the SFF, Peppy, and Slippy hostage. They had blasters and Eric quickly gave a roundhouse kick one to the face and slashed the second through the middle with his sword, and found out that he could do this without being taught. Despite being in a life-or-death situation, pulling off fancy sword and martial arts maneuvers came naturally. Dropping the third with the flat of the blade, he cursed himself for not getting off his couch and trying something like this, he probably would have less physical injuries.

"Whoa, that was incredible!" Slippy squeaked. Even Falco was staring at the sheer speed Eric dropped the guards. Eric slashed at the bars, the SFF was freed. With the guards one floor, Eric arranged for them beneath the covers to look like Fox and Co. was sleeping, then used pillows to cover for the three empty beds. Following behind Eric, they quietly snuck through the corridor. Sarah felt that Eric, Falco and Krystal made far too much noise, Eclipse, Fox and herself were far stealthier. Then, of course, Peppy and Slippy almost brought down the house, and when Slippy tripped into a cabinet full of cooking utensils in the kitchen, holding out to see if they had been caught, Eric pulled him aside.

"You stupid freak show!" Eric exploded into Slippy's face, he cowered as much as he could, slinking down his vest. "Why don't you just hit the stupid alarm, dumbass Toad!" The noise could have woken Eclipse on a tilithium high and Slippy just sort of skulked at the back of the train of people after that.

They continued to tip-toe through the corridors of the Cerberus, someone was talking on the other side of a door. Looking up, bright neon letters spelled out ARMORY. "If your guy's weapons are anywhere in this ship, they're gonna be in there." Eric said. "You guys are unarmed, so try to grab a blaster or something, and be ready for backup." The rest of the group nodded in silent agreement. "And Slippy? Try to lose some clumsiness, for your god's sake, you and Peppy are lookout." Slippy tried to argue, then closed his mouth. He'd probably attract someone.

Eric strolled in the door like he owned the Cerberus. The pig and crocodile guards actually looked up, then looked down to their game of cards before realizing that Eric had no fur. He looked THAT much like one of the ape guards.

"Hey, you aren't Gunther!" The crocodile said, dumbfounded, meeting the sole of Eric's shoe up close and personal. Fox cracked his knuckles on the pig guard, then they went through the armory in search of weapons. After tying up the croc and pig, they found their weapons and Eric found something of personal interest.

"Eric, those are archaic!" Falco said rashly as Eric hoisted a pair of gunpowder submachine guns, both of which mostly grayish and very similar in shape. Scratched on the sides of the barrel looked like half of a yin and yang symbol for each gun.

"Yeah, I'm the only one without a distance weapon." Eric said as he put them into the vest Fox let him borrow. "Fox has his blaster, Sarah has the Beamstriker, you have the Z-1 and Krystal and Eclipse each have spellslinging abilities. Now I-" He spun them around to demonstrate. "-Have guns. Now, if it all comes to a ranged battle I won't be able to just be used as cannon fodder."

"Eric, those are BULLET weapons…" Sarah felt obliged to point out.

"Yeah, so…?"

"They make noise, blow holes in spacecraft, and any wound will be traceable to YOU."

"And if I don't let them know I have it so they just follow a dead end?"

Sarah rolled her eyes. It was futile arguing, despite dozens and dozens of blaster weapons, so Eric found a decent holster for inside the vest and the rest of the group reclaimed their weapons. "There's no fully automatic function," Eric explained. It was at that moment Gunther decided to come back…

"What the hell?"

"I got him." Falco responded. He was only slightly pissed at having to hand another life-debt to Eric and proceeded to bash Gunther's face in. Gunther fell back, stunned, when Falco shot him with a tranquilizer dart and he went down.

Tying up the fallen foes and stuffing them into a forgotten corner of the armory, they proceeded to the bridge as something bone-chilling hit Eclipse from behind. Literally. Stumbling forward and holding her back, Sarah and Falco jumped to the back as Fox was flung into an alarm button. A deafening SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEET! SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET! filled the ship.

"What the hell?!?" Eric shouted, grasping Murasma tightly as Leon Powalski seemed to appear out of thin air. "Camouflage," Eric managed to gasp as Leon pulled out a blaster. Eric tried to absorb a blast with his sword, but missed, taking a perfectly cylindrical chunk out of Eric's shoulder. Screaming from the sting, Leon promptly disappeared again. Luckily, the gun stayed visible and dropped to the ground, but all the muscle in the world can be reduced to a pile of bloody corpses by an invisible attacker.

"Subtlety be damned!" Eric called, swinging wildly. A spray of chameleon blood sprayed across the floor. Success! Leon de-camouflaged just long enough for Falco to grab him and start strangling him. Try as Leon might, he even camouflaged into Falco to make it look like he disappeared, he couldn't break Falco's death grip. Leon then began to plead for his life as Sarah muttered something about hopeless cliché's.

"Don't do anything! Don't kill me!" Leon pleaded. Falco tightened his hold, while Eric staring at Leon and the screaming alarm, and the sound of guards coming.

"No…" Eric said, standing in front of Leon and staring over the rim of his sunglasses at Falco. Eric's blue eyes were twinkling malevolently from behind the opaque barrier as the rest of the crew were trading curious glances, to Eric, to Leon, to the screaming alarm… "I've thought up of a better use for you…"

The screaming pack of foes came charging around the corridor and encountered a startling sight. Hiding behind a writhing mass of duct tape, which was encasing Leon, was the SFF. Only Leon's mouth showed, the black submachine gun poked from underneath Leon's armpit. Fox's blaster was aimed straight at Leon's head while Falco's Z-1 was also coming from behind the biological barrier that was Leon. Meanwhile, Eclipse and Krystal were focusing on a magic shield to prevent someone from coming up from behind.

"Don't shoot, you imbeciles!" Leon roared as well as he could covered in thick tape when one of the apish guards tried to squeeze in a shot. "You could cause an explosive decompression by hitting the outside wall! Or hit ME!" The guards tensed up but lowered their guns. "What do you want us to do?" They asked Eric, who promptly came up with a bluff.

"That is more like it! Take us to Wolf, and if you so much as twitch a blaster in our direction both you and Leon are going to be so covered in laser burns your skin grafts will need skin grafts!" Eric barked.

"Is he always like this?" Eclipse whispered in Sarah's ear, who had two arrows nocked, one behind the other, with the Beamstriker and it trained on a foe.

"No, this is relatively new…" Sarah replied.

"Do it!" Leon barked. Man, Leon was just not making this fun at all… Eric thought. Falco also had a similar mindset.

Leading the way, the guards led Fox and Co. through the ship. Passing an alarm, Sarah let loose her flaming arrows at the alarm, causing it to stop screaming. Just as well, the furries were nearly deaf from the constant screaming, and even Eric, who's hearing was impaired, felt like his eardrums had blown. Every time one of them turned around, Sarah was all to happy to ricochet an arrow off the ceiling and come in danger of impaling their brains on the sharp point. Wolf was not pleased when the SFF finally got there.

"How did this happen!" He roared.

"Very carefully." Eric replied. "Now I'm going to make you a deal. Leon's life, for our ship in pristine order and letting us just fly off."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Peppy whispered.

"Yeah, you have to make sure it would be something they want."

Wolf seemed to be trying to make a decision. It was made easier, since every guard on the way had their blasters ready, but with a shield Eclipse and Krystal were powering, and a gun to Leon's head and the rest of the group ready to bring hell at any move, Wolf was actually taking the time to decide. We'll get them later, he thought. And leave a little… surprise…

"Fine. Let him go now." Wolf declared miserably.

"Oh no, no, no! You fix our ship first! How do we know you aren't going to backstab us?"

"I could say the same thing. And remember something. Who's more responsible than the good guys?" Eric asked cockily.

"Just let Leon go, and we'll fix the ship."

"Turn that order around."

"Fine." Wolf finally said after much hesitation.

"That's more like it."

Backing into a corner to allow for complete control over the situation, Wolf fired the Cerberus' Tractor Beams at the Great Fox and sent workers to fix the vacuum hole. Half a cycle later, they came back.

"And Wolf," Eric added as a safety precaution. "What about the Nova Bomb and the tracking device you had your guys plant?"

Wolf's eyes flickered, then seemed sunk into his head. "How did you know? They were perfectly concealed!"

Eric burst out into laughter and triumph. Amidst the endless belly-laughs, Fox and Wolf could make out one sentence.

"I didn't, you just told me!"

Words failed Wolf's expressed anger. He literally picked up one of his guards and chucked him out the airlock, and continued to throw various random objects around. Fox dug his blaster into Leon's skull to insure that they still could bring down Leon and a bunch of stuff if they turned aggression on the SFF.

Another thirty minutes and much Enhance Endurance spells from Krystal later, they walked backwards into the bridge connecting the Great Fox with the Cerberus. Just before getting into the Great Fox, Slippy rebooted Rob to check pressure levels and for foreign substances, which were absent.

After Eric gave Leon a swift kick in the back, they prepared to launch off the Great Fox. Leon barely hopped back before the doors closed and the tunnel connecting the ships was severed, and by that time, Fox, Falco and Eclipse were in their ships and ready to give hell.

"See you later, Wolf. Until our next meeting." Eric said, gloatingly into the comlink. He was still gloating over his quick victory. "Wits need some time to catch." And so do thieves, he thought to himself, grinning like an idiot. As the Cerberus disappeared from sight, Eric turned around to the rest of the fellowship as Eclipse, Fox, and Falco came back in as Slippy and Rob took over piloting.

"Life debts owed to Eric: Twelve. Number of debts Eric owes: Zero." And with that he sat back into a chair and smiled so smugly Tom Turner would call him arrogant.

"HEY!" Krystal suddenly said. "What about saving your sorry ass back on Dinosaur Planet?!"

"I just paid that off. You guys are welcome, I'll be expecting your bill in cash."

Thirty minutes and much running from Falco later, Eric and the group settled down to eat and discuss the plans for what next. Venom was an awful long way away, and besides, the group could use some backup in case push came to shove.

"How about Katina?" Fox suggested. "It's (relatively) peaceful and quiet and Bill could give us some support for Venom. I think Katt is also staying there right now…" He said, exchanging smarting glances with Falco. The group agreed and set the course for Venom, with Eric always keeping an eye out for surprise attacks from behind. Wolf wouldn't give up, not after the giant hole in his ego Eric just gave them.

Of course, you probably know Murphy's Law would kick in soon enough.

(On the Bridge of the Cerberus)

Wolf was still fuming. How had someone who would have made a perfect Venomian manage to beat them so badly?!? Vengeance would be theirs. Maybe their superiors would stick a hand in… and then there was what they did to Klepto… Wolf sat there staring at the K.I.A. notice for Klepto. No. Next time we meet, Wolf thought, we WILL bring them down!

"Andrew!" Wolf barked.

"Yes?" Oikenny replied.

"Arrange for the rebels at MacBeth to get in the way of their trip to Venom! They will be stopped, and we will have revenge…"


	15. Katt's past love Chapter XV

Chapter VI

(Aboard the Cerberus)

"But," one of the weapons engineers said. "Do you think that's _wise?_" He inquired.

"I WILL **MAKE **IT WISE, DAMMIT!" Wolf roared. The insolent gunman cowered and shut up quickly. "We lost our best assassin and thief and are forced to hand another victory to those insolent Star Fox men! What are their destination coordinates?"

"Judging by the information we got before the traitor ape got you to reveal the bug…" He took a pause to rip a dagger out of his arm that Wolf threw at him. Wincing, he continued, not daring to hesitate for fear of drawing the O'Donnell's wrath. "And the direction they were headed, they are headed for Katina."

"You better hurry at getting those soldiers there, our superiors will NOT be pleased at impertinence and failure!"

(Aboard the Great Fox)

Eric was having it again. 

The Venom dream. 

Struggling to escape from the hellish nightmare, he had failed miserably. Despite his desire to wake up at the end after he got hit by a shot-down ArWing, the dream had not stopped there. Interestingly, it hadn't fractured his nerves in midway, probably from his bolstered courage over the past three weeks.

Looking up at the flying ship. He managed to jump in time to skid over the ship and land, face first, in the dirt. Feeling like someone took a raw egg and used it as a bowling ball, Eric shakily got to his feet armed with his mace he had picked up. Dashing over to the cockpit, he took the mace to the broken glass and within moments had the full window opened up. Ducking shrapnel and hoping no one saw him with any lethal interests, Eric ducked in and saw a canine in robes wrapped up, shards of glass piercing his chest and arm.

"Come on, let's get you out of here!" Eric said to the creature, who stirred somewhat. Lasers and arrows were flying, the battlefield was rapidly becoming more dangerous.

"Nnngh? Oh, it's you, Eric…" Eric heard the creature mutter. It was apparently unconscious, but Eric had far too much to think on that, with it coming to.

"Wait a minute… how do you know my name? Hold on… _Fox_?" Eric guessed as it pulled Eric through a silver circle into a swirling world of hoary mist. Pulling his mace out, Eric quickly realized the futility of that as there was no gravity; getting enough force just to pull it back would be insane. He was floating, he could see his body, yet Eric just seemed to float there, suspended by an unseen force. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my dreamscape! I need my sleep! I get drawn back here way too frequently!"

From under the hood, the fox had a raspy voice, hoarse, like it hasn't been used for years. Eric also sensed the veteran tone of someone who's seen too much and done too much.

"You already know who I am. I am he who has gone back so far as not to be pulled out, and clawed his way to the beginning, I am he who recovers from the irreparable wound, and flies like a bird, yet no avian am I. I am-"

"Can the freakin' titles. I want straight answers and I want them **NOW**!" Eric roared. From under the hood, the canine said slowly and deliberately.

"You already know who I am…" When Eric awoke.

(Outside of dream land)

Eric jerked awake with a start. Checking his watch (which he had calibrated for SF time) it was the equivalent of 2:00 in the morning. Man, he'd never get back to sleep now! To console his growing boredom and tiredness, Eric was fiddling with his new toys and his watch, trying to jump start them with new versatility. After an hour of getting nowhere, he took out his booklet and copied down everything which happened in his dream. First of all, what the hell were with all of those titles? "So far as not to be pulled out…" "The irreparable wound…" "Flies like a bird, yet no avian am I…" Man. Puzzles suck.

Trying to take a shower, which trying to keep his shades on was no easy task, he finally managed to get somewhat clean and got into a pair of spare clothes Fox had lent him. Eric was still kicking himself, why the hell didn't he bring any clothes! It was all stupid. Stupid and futile. He'd probably end up dead, then it wouldn't matter how many other good deeds he would save. Wait… dead… Bah. Stupid resurrection alter, thing probably doesn't work.

Taking time out from his jumble of completely random thoughts, he continued to stare at his recordings of the (odd, incomplete, ended prematurely) dream. The irreparable wound… that would be… death… flies like a bird, yet no avian… that could be made possible… and then my sword reads… it clicked.

"Holy sweet mother of god!" Eric exclaimed. "It's…!"

At breakfast ("Honest to god, Fox, this stuff tastes like crap." Eric complained) no one really noticed that Eric was acting different and far-off from the rest of the group, mainly because, as Sarah pointed out, it was really nothing new. But as they neared Katina, Eric was bent on one thing. Checking what other name was on Sarah's bow. It would prove his theory if it was what he thought it was.

When Sarah and the others were getting ready to land, Eric was staring at the Beamstriker, which Sarah had over her back. It just seemed simple, the gnarled darkwood bow with blades at the end, along with arrows with flaming points. Eric saw it, which Sarah herself did not see when it changed in her hands.

The bottom blade, closest to the ground, scribed towards the outside,

"Sarah V. Rienhard." Well. There it is. Sarah's middle name was Carrie.

When the Great Fox landed, Bill greeted Fox with a rather informal greeting while giving Eric and Sarah wayward, suspicious glances. Noticing this, Fox piped up. "Don't worry, the kids are with me." Sarah didn't mind the reference, but Eric's hotheaded temper flared. Eric opened his mouth to come up with a scathing comeback when Sarah elbowed him in the ribs.

"Shh…" Sarah hushed.

Left to skulking, Fox told Bill of the things they went through in getting here from Dinosaur planet as they explored Katina's capital, Yesgartoth. It was definitely not one for the weak, as the urban place reminded Eric of New York. After getting his ass kicked there on when he joined his mom for a business trip, Eric never wanted to go there again!

"So, what's new, other than going to Venom to scout out the bubbling activity at Venom?" Bill asked. The words caught Eric… didn't Pepper send James McCloud to his death to scout out, "extra activity?" Eric shook the dark thoughts from his head and let them continue.

"Well, unless you count the fact that we've been visited by creatures from another dimension, it looks like it's going to be same old, same old."

"Your lives must be really jam-packed if you consider this, 'same old, same old.'" Sarah lamented.

"Hah, yep. Things have been pretty quiet recently, though. Hey- Falco, what's that in your backpack?

"This? The kid keeps calling it a Z-1…" Falco said, pulling it out. Eric was more than miffed at the reference.

Bill's face fell. "We've been working on a weapon like that for a while, I gave it to a friend to defend the Dinosaur Planet airport. I can only assume that he was not one of the ones to escape the attack…" Come to think of it, Eric did remember being around a hunk of ice that could have easily harbored a person by where Falco found it. "We have been working on that, and the friend lost was a dear one indeed. Could I have it back? I want to be able to give it back to the scientists to work on it some more." Falco VERY reluctantly handed it over along with unrepeatable profanities at having to lose a powerful gun. Bill lightened up a bit while Eric toned out the rest of the conversation. He was daydreaming about actually playing a major part and not having Fox hog everything if some act of heroism should ensue, when an earth-shattering voice rocked his world.

"JACK EDWARD CHAYKIN!" the voice yelled, apparently not belonging to anyone he knew. Time seemed to slow down despite the shades not going precognitic on him. Distance from source of sound: 1.6 meters, decibel level: 87.8, probable source: Angry, female feline furry, suggestions: RUN!

Spinning out of his chair, Eric struggled to put some distance between whatever the hell was about to flay him alive. Tripping over Sarah's chair, Eric's blood was ringing in his ears. Vision went black and white to a paw, claws extended, ready to bring itself down on Eric's head while he struggled to roll out of the way.

Eric's blood had been pounding in his head for a while until he realized it was the SF team and Bill laughing their collective asses off while the pink, fluffy feline stood over Eric's prone form, ready to the kill.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN HOLDING OUT FOR YOU, you…" The cat trailed off for lack of a better word.

"Please don't kill me, wait… who did you call me again?"

The feline finally got a decent look at Eric's face, whose sunglasses were askew and only on enough as not to have him vanish before everyone's sight.

"Hey… You aren't Jack!" Eric had maybe three seconds to breathe a sigh of relief, far too soon, it turned out. "What have you done with him! Whatever it is, I'll make you suffer!"

"Whoa, Katt, settle down." Bill chuckled. 

"I don't have any idea who this Jack is… wait, what did you say his last name was?"

"Chaykin." Katt was starting to settle down just barely long enough to hear what Eric had to say.

"Chaykin, Chaykin…" Eric had a very fuzzy memory of a Professor Lester Knight Chaykin in a game series called Out Of This World, maybe they were relatives. Not wanting to reveal that all of their lives were completely fake, Eric quickly said, "Nope. Haven't heard of him." Bad move, it turned out.

"Well, no dumper is going to get the best of me! I've been waiting eight years for him to rear his ugly face and come back to me! Unless…" The edge of Katt's loneliness-induced rage started to come off again. "Unless he got injured, or was on Cerinia when it blew-" At this, Katt's face started to trail into both impossibility and past sadness. She shook it off instantly though. "-Or…"

"Listen, Katt, settle down." Katt had turned away as she started naming off atrocities that kept on ending in death as Eric grabbed her tail to get her attention. Again the precognition ability went off as it gave a frozen shot of Katt's face in encompassing anger.

Backing up and dodging the claw swings, Eric backed away from the whirlwind of rage that was Katt. "Don't touch the tail!" She yelled out. Looking at the rest of the group for help, they were all laying back in their chairs.

"You got her mad, Eric, she's all yours." Falco said, grinning.

"Shut up, Lombardi!" Katt said, then turned back to rag on Eric. "Don't touch the tail, and don't tell me to settle down! I have been worried sick about Jack ever since he was a month overdue to come back! DON'T TELL ME TO SETTLE DOWN!"

"I thought you were with Falco…" Not Eric's smoothest move. At the mention of the name, Katt reared back and slapped Eric across the face, claws extended.

"Don't ever remind me of my futile efforts!" Katt bristled while Eric was shouting in pain. Needless to say, Eric was extremely grateful when Fox finally stepped in and put a stop to the fight.

(Five minutes and much first-aid later)

"OK, Eric, I think your cheek is going to be ok, but you've had a shattered jawbone and these cuts are extremely deep." Krystal had been poking the side of Eric's head trying to heal it. Eric was ok, but his jaw was still extremely sore and he had these awful scars lining his left cheek. Throughout the impromptu healing, Eric was still giving hateful glances at Katt. He hadn't even seen her for more than two minutes and he resented her, her temper, her worrying about someone who was gone for a humongous amount of time, and the small appearance of wealth that was slightly emanated by the ring on her left hand. He was extremely tempted to say, "Well, after what you just gave me trying to probe, I wouldn't blame him if he ever came back!" But remembered his jaw and thought better of it. He also suddenly realized (before anyone else, thank god, Eric thought) that he kept on staring at Krystal while she was trying to magically close the wound. After which he promptly snapped out of it and stared ahead into blankness as not to arouse remarks from Falco nor aggression from Fox.

      After Eric was patched for the most part, Falco pulled him aside while the rest of the group went to do their own thing.

      "Listen, kid…" Eric inwardly grimaced in annoyance and let Falco continue. "Watch your back when you talk to Katt. You know that guy she mistook for you?"

      "Jack Chaykin?"

      "Yeah. Well, ever since he mysteriously vanished into thin air 8 years or so ago, she's been… well… huffy. She's been on-the-edge, asks for a conversation and then explodes… I'd keep an eye on her if I were you. Something is just not right with this…"

      "Um… okay…" Eric was content to wave the warning aside; his mind was slightly more focused on his aching head. Falco left Eric to arrange what he was going to do while they went to Katina to talk with Bill.

Later, while Fox, Bill, Katt and Eclipse were going to discuss what was going on, Krystal went down some restaurant with Falco to discuss events on their own while Peppy and Slippy went to monitor the Great Fox, work on maps and gadgets, etc leaving Eric and Sarah with nothing do to but hang out. Fox gave them roughly 40 credits to entertain themselves with while they were there ("The currency transfer rate better be pretty damn good…" Eric complained). Eric was also not very impressed with a piece of paper which Fox had hastily scribbled down, "NOT VENOMIAN, Sir Fox McCloud." On it.

Roughly fifteen minutes and a lot of aimless wandering later, Eric and Sarah came back out of the equivalent of a Quizno's with large sandwiches for their lunch. Sarah had practically stapled the paper onto her chest, something which irked him. Shout it out to the world, he thought, the less attention the better. Eric also didn't realize all of the meat was fake or tofu until Sarah pointed it out. Staring at the sub (Eric hated "fake," meat,) he just kept on deciding to munch, seeing that, unlike back in his own dimension, he couldn't taste the difference.

Tossing their wrappers into a waste-disposal can, a shadow slinked through the alleys watching the two humans. Eric, not noticing anything, walked ahead, but Sarah stopped.

"What?" Eric asked.

"I thought I saw something…" Sarah replied, whispering as not to attract too much attention.

"Man, I think you're seeing things." Eric said, looking in the shadows.

"It must have been nothing…" Sarah said, still looking troubled.

Thirty seconds later it was Eric's turn to spin around, hand on Murasma's hilt, which would later turn to be a mistake. Sarah hadn't brought the Beamstriker, seeing as it would have been very hard to conceal, but Eric had used a cloak he "borrowed," from Peppy to conceal the blade, as well as the submachine guns he got off of the Cerberus. "What the hell was that?"

"See?! I told you something was going on!" Sarah said, almost bragging.

"Hey, shut up," Eric scorned. Now he couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched.

Sitting down on a park bench to catch their bearings, Eric sat down to relax and contemplate everything which had happened while Sarah was trotting around the area Eric was sitting at, looking up at some of the freakishly tall buildings. Some of which were at least three or four more stores high than the one Eric jumped out of back at Dinosaur Planet!

Eric was about to get up when a hand on his cloak ripped it from his neck; and Murasma and the guns as well! The thief was a scrawny-looking rat in a dark-green cloak fleeing for his life.

Eric was about to call to Sarah for help in apprehending the thief, but after looking around, she was gone!


	16. Urban Thieves! Chapter XVI

Chapter VII

Looking frantically about, Eric couldn't see Sarah. There were a bunch of trees and a bunch of bushes, but they were too far away for Sarah to just vanish to in record time. Left with no other options, Eric dashed off to pursue the thief.

(Sarah)

"Mmmmf! Mmf mf!" Sarah said, trying to get some words through of the weasel that had grabbed her from behind Eric, and right under Eric's nose, dragged her behind the trees and bushes.

"You just keep reeeaaaaal still, missy," a gorilla said while the weasel kept a dagger to her throat. "And yer not going to get hurt." The gorilla then started making noises that one might liken to the rapists of New York City streets.

"Big, mistake," Sarah said. Eric had seen her in her martial arts classes, "A whirlwind of fury," was Eric's description. The people she fought usually found that an understatement.

Bringing her foot up, not to step on the weasel's foot but with enough leverage and movement to kick him in the groin with the heel of her foot. He began to fall back and make choking noises. "Get her!" He squeaked. He sounded like someone had taken his vocal cords, take a screwdriver to them, and then turn the pitch to eleven.

Still going on the force of bringing her foot back, she then swung at the gorilla, snapping her knee at the last possible second. A sickening _crunch_ and eight seconds later, he was holding his ribs and at every move screamed in pain.

Cracking her neck bones in a sign of badass-ish movement, Sarah looked at her vanquished foes and continued to proceed to hunt down Eric when the sound of a gun hastily being cocked behind her halted her in her tracks.

Roughly seven feet away, far too far for Sarah to kick the gun out of his hands, the weasel, still holding his balls, had a blaster aimed squarely between her eyes. Armed with a murderous look, he barked evilly, "You're going to strip and let us do whatever the hell we-" He was immediately silenced by a fireball to the throat. Two blaster bolts hit the other in the chest. He fell back, injured.

Falco and Krystal jumped in to view the handiwork, each with their respective weapons. "You know, you have an annoying habit of showing up as a deux ex machina." Sarah said, miffed. "I could have handled them."

"Prove it!" Falco said as way of habit. Sarah grumbled. "See? You can't," Falco said with his air of superiority. "By the way, we brought this along," He said, tossing her Beamstriker. "Figured you'd need it."

Sarah nodded. "Thanks," she said.

"Where's Eric?" Krystal interjected.

"I'm not sure. I saw him go tearing off after this one guy who stole his cloak, his guns, and his sword…"

"Wow, he puts an emphasis on his weapons even more than I do!" Falco joked.

"Then why didn't he come after you if you were about to get killed by-" Falco nodded to the lifeless bodies of Sarah's assailants. Falco and Krystal had both used stun power, but they'd be out for hours. Long enough for the authorities to find them. "Them?"

"They dragged me out from behind Eric, right under his nose. His hearing has somewhat suffered… But let's go find him!" She added hastily, before they could ask about Eric's hearing impediment, which happened to be caused by one-to-many weeks right next to the speaker on full blast.

"Finally, some action. Let's rock!" Falco, of course.

(Eric)

Dashing through the streets proved to be a bit more daunting than was anticipated. Seemed everywhere you went, a pedestrian was just asking for a head-on collision.

Left! Right! Jump off wall! There seemed to be no opening to wherever the hell they were.

Making a giant leap Eric didn't even know he had in him and ricocheting off a building, he held onto a street lamp for a better view of the situation Someone wearing a trenchcoat and holding onto a cloak… that's him! Too bad he was in the middle of a giant crowd, getting to him would be murder and there were suspicious looking guys in black overcoats that he was running to. 

Kicking and swinging to gain some momentum from the pole he was hanging on, he made a great leap to the next lamppost. Surprised by this, he almost lost his grip and would have surely been trampled. I'm capable of this?!? He thought. I'm in better physical shape than I thought! Of course, dragging around rulebooks, entire PCs, errata sheets, and dice must have helped his arm strength, then the fact he spent more time running from gangs than walking calmly might have had something to do with it.

He kept this up for another three swings until a searing pain hit his right hand, from the building! Falling maybe seven feet (There are advantages to being tall), it wasn't enough to hurt him, but getting trampled by pedestrians and suddenly noticing a burning hole in your right hand has a tendency to tax your physical endurance.

Staunching the trickling flow of blood that had not gotten cauterized, he slid under a confused fruit-venders stand and made a dash where he saw the rat. He'd get him, alright.

(Sarah)

Sarah, Krystal and Falco were taking a back route to where Sarah had said Eric was dashing off to. The alleys were far less crowded than the streets Eric was sloshing through, but Sarah couldn't help but notice that some of the homeless creatures in them seemed to be talking into their baggy sleeves when they came by, like there was something concealed there.

Cries of confusion crept into the alleyway like a stray strand of wind with cries along the lines of, "What the… that's a Venomian monkey!"

Sarah looked at Falco, exasperated. "His trademark. Drawing too much attention to himself."

"We'd better step in before he gets arrested. Remind me again why we're doing this?"

"Because he's saved your lives twice already?" Krystal put in.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Falco grumbled.

Falco, Sarah and Krystal continued dashing through the crowd. Krystal, being the tallest member of the group, managed to squeeze out an extra inch of viewpoint.

"I see him!" Krystal said, on her toes. "He's just grabbed this one rat and is trying to grab what looks like a cloak… oh great…"

(Eric)

"GIVE IT BACK!" Eric yelled in the face of the weasel, which spat in his face. Stunned for a few seconds, Eric let go. Wiping the spit from his face, he took two steps and felt the harsh sting of a fist to the face.

Falling back, mostly from stun, a large, burly pig stood there, wiping the blood from Eric's now-bloody nose from his fist. Eric thought about two seconds of running when he remembered - hey. No parental supervision to get me in trouble for fights, and I'm sick and tired of handing these guys their fun!

Cracking his knuckles and his neck, Eric assumed a crude brawling pose. The pig looked like it was about to just die from laughter, while the rat assumed a hiding pose next to a pair of what looked like wolves.

Realizing he couldn't just get to the rat until he was through with the pig, Eric feinted to catch him off his guard. The pig put up defenses to the face when Eric swept him off his feet. On his back, Eric jumped into the air was about to bring his knee onto the pig when he rolled out of the way at the last possible second. A crunching sound could be heard as Eric's kneecap came into contact with the concrete. Needless to say, Eric walked funny for a while afterwards as soon as he had time to think of the pain.

But in the meantime, Eric had more to think of than his knee right now, he wouldn't notice until later. Dodging a foot to his left, he missed a ham-sized fist that would probably have knocked his face in. Taking another punch to the gut, Eric stumbled back, wind knocked out of him.

"You… rat…" Eric wheezed. Gaining his bearings, he spun around, attempting to roundhouse across the face and succeeding. Stumbling back with a bloody nostril, the pig turned to Eric with hatred spelled all over his face. Almost immediately afterwards, Eric jumped into the air for a jump kick at the pig's chest, expecting the creature to fall on contact.

Unfortunately, the pig was faster than that. Grabbing hold of Eric's leg, the pig gave a mighty tug and twist and Eric found himself on his back a moment later. Opening his eyes (Eric had closed them from the shock) Eric realized: the pig wasn't there anymore! Scrambling to his feet in record time, he had another millisecond before his shoulder was grabbed, spinning him around, and a fist on his neck threatened to choke the life out of him.

"Cornarian traitor…" The pig whispered into Eric's ear, quiet enough that only he could hear.

"Missed something." Eric wheezed.

"What?" The pig replied murderously. He was given an answer by a knee to the balls. Loosening his grip, he slunk to the ground on two knees and began muttering some nonsense like, "Sky flows through concrete veins!" as the pain began the sensory deprivation. As he sat there writhing in pain, Eric went over to confront the rat to find he was hopelessly overpowered. The two wolves had gotten out blasters and the rat (finding he couldn't wield the sword) had pulled out Eric's guns.

"Goodbye, defector," The one on the right said as all hell broke loose in the square they were in. Spectators had long since gathered to see the fight; why the hell were two Venomian creatures fighting each other? 

Cart-wheeling behind a tall building, shrapnel exploded most of the wall between him when Eric realized two really terrible things.

Number 1: The spectators in the way. Last thing he needed were civilian casualties because he was clumsy enough to let Venom forces notice them.

Number 2: Bullet shots were going through the wall!

(Sarah)

"That's gunfire!" Sarah said as the explosive noise rocked the world.

"Cripes, this guy gets in more trouble than Fox does!" Falco grumbled.

As the rat continued to fire at the wall where Eric ducked behind (surprised by the recoil for a few seconds, but he was over it) the two wolves started firing at the bystanders. This was going to get ugly reeeaaaaal quick…

Falco drew his blaster while Krystal muttered some incantation while Sarah watched bluish circles fly around her arms, while at the same time, the strain of hoisting her bow behind her back seemed to fade.

"Let the arrows fly with increased strength, Sarah." Krystal said. "Falco and I have the two wolves, you get the rat." Not feeling entirely content with her choice of foe, Sarah drew her bow and notched an arrow as Krystal sent forth several fireballs as Falco dove in, blaster ablaze.

The arrow flew with god speed as it speared the hands of the rat, forming a makeshift kind of painful handcuffs. Dropping the guns, the rat fell back, trying to break the arrow. Falco had gotten in several shots into the side of his wolf, and Krystal had taken to staff-fighting with the last one. They were gaining the upper hand!

Diving out from the hiding place behind the wall now that the gunfire stopped, it was time for Eric to exact revenge upon the rat. How dare he steal some free time on a hellish adventure? High-kicking it in the face, it stumbled back uncertainly. Sarah let loose two arrows in rapid succession, concentrating on subdual damage rather than normal. To her surprise (not really to Eric's since he had already guessed the bow's nature) the arrows turned yellow in mid-flight and caused the wolf they targeted to stumble with weakness. To the wolf it was like a giant club beaned him in the head, snaring the senses in a blind array of trapping pain. Falco had already succumbed his wolf, and Eric had his rat in a headlock, yelling at it in indescribable profanities (And in his invented language, no less). Krystal, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky.

Spinning her staff around in a helicopter pattern, she got in several good hits as the wolf grabbed the end of it. Striking Krystal in the chest with surprising force, drew his blaster and capped Krystal in the shoulder as she rolled with the punch. Springing back up, Krystal made an attempt to put up a shield but was struck halfway through the incantation. Against a wall, the wolf levered his blaster at Krystal's face. And this time, he would not miss the coup de grace. Sarah was busy with the other wolf, Falco was subduing the pig (his wolf was unconscious…) and would not be able to make it in time… Struggling to get into a position to strike the wolf, she raised her staff…

…And stared at the flaming blade point protruding from the wolf's gut. The wolf looked down. Fury engraved on its face like permanent writing on a tombstone. Feeling his lifeblood slip, he only got out three words. "Tremble… General… An…" before collapsing.

Eric's triumph was short lived as the rat (Whom he had ignored to save Krystal) plugged what was left of a clip into Eric's back. Krystal didn't want to use Eric as a human shield, but as there were only eight bullets in the chamber Eric would (hopefully) survive.

As soon as the shots stopped, Eric slumped unceremoniously down while Falco let loose his blaster into the rats head. Sarah dashed to get the cloak to help bind the bloody holes that Eric had in his back as several local authorities came up. Falco hastily explained that Sarah and Eric (who Krystal carried with the help of a _bull's strength_

spell) were ok. Eric was out cold and bleeding profusely. Krystal prepared to let loose some serious healing magic to save Eric's life, but Sarah's quick thinking stopped what probably would be the biggest mistake in career.

"The lead stays in his body, sealing the holes will only hurt him more in the long run."

While Sarah and Krystal dashed back to the Great Fox to get Eric patched up (and surgery to remove the bullets) Falco stayed behind for a second. A small notepad was poking out of the rat's vest…

Scooping down and picking it up out of the rat's pocket before the police found it, Falco quickly discovered the futility of trying to read it; it was in DPese. He'd have to show it to Krystal.

One look back at the scene, as well as some murderous looks from the shadows, Falco fled.

Back at the Husky HQ where the rest of the group was staying, Falco caught up with them there. Waltzing through the door (Eric mumbling something about fluffy anthropomorphic vixens, getting a strange look from Sarah in the process and a disturbed look from Krystal)

"What the bloody hell happened!" Fox exclaimed, noticing Eric's less-than-healthy condition and how the rest were at least bruised.

"Next time, you take the kids." Falco barked angrily. Krystal was already taking Eric to the hospital wing, Sarah and Eclipse on her heels. Falco proceeded to get into an argument with Fox while Katt and Bill went to check on Eric for lack of something better to do.

"What the hell happened?!" Fox yelled. As Katt left the room, she anticipated coming back and having to get Krystal to patch up them too. Falco gave his half-assed description. Fox did NOT seem satisfied.

"The humans and Krystal got into trouble with some dregs and you had to save them? Hmm, that's a new one." Fox said sarcastically. "I think I'm going to take Krystal's and Sarah's view, and Eric's when he's conscious.

"Come on, man," Falco pursued. "I mean, look at you, you barely know them and you're acting like you're responsible."

"Last time I checked, you'd be interested too of some strange beings from another world came into ours. And besides, you know how much Katt has been getting on us on Jack's whereabouts."

"See? Now that's what I'm talking about. Use him for something other than being a sacrificial gopher."

Fox swung. Use him for something? That was going a bit far for someone with 13 life debts owed to him.

Catching his friends fist, Falco stared at Fox. "Lay off, man," He said. "Come on, let's check on Eric, he was in awful shape when we left the scene." Calming down, Fox agreed.

However, in the hospital wing, Eric wasn't exactly in the greatest of conditions. The shattered kneecap was nearly instantly healed (although the ache continued for about a week) but there was the problem of getting eight metal slugs out of Eric's back, which was losing blood profusely. Sarah stood there, praying for Eric's well-being, Katt was worried, despite the previous encounter while Krystal was readying the surgery tools. Bill turned his head at Fox and Falco when they walked in.

"Wow… ouch. Why don't we use those weapons rather than our blasters, Fox? I mean… Ow! That's firepower!"

"They're messy, they make a lot of noise and hurt like crap." Sarah put in. "These kinds of gunpowder weapons are some of the things we have where Eric and I are from, we don't have the technology for lasers yet."

"Than how the hell was Eric able to help Slippy so well?" Falco demanded.

"Eric… doesn't reside on our same plane of reality, if you get my drift. He has taken a chosen exile to pursue things that would otherwise be impossible with peers breathing down your neck."

"How would it be impossible?" Fox asked calmly while Krystal was taking out a pair of pliers and scissors in an attempt to cut out the bullets while Eric stared ahead catatonically. 

"When you figure it out, let me know, ok?" Sarah said, looking at the rather painful procedure that Krystal was doing. After cutting open what should have been more than was necessary, the lead slug protruded from the wound. Krystal picked it up and chucked it into an incinerator. Then, with a grimace of distaste, she thrust a finger in the hole, muttered something, and when she pulled the finger back out the wound was closed. She then proceeded to work out the other holes.

"Anyway," Bill said, slightly sickened by the display of combat medic. "I'm going to check on surveillance, see if anything is up." With that he walked from the room and Fox thought he heard gagging noises. Krystal continued to patch Eric up when Fox's communicator rang.

Pushing the button, Fox responded. "McCloud." The hologram of Peppy came into the room. Slippy's voice could also be heard in the background, marveling at something.

"We have kind of a thanks for Eric for saving our asses twice so far." Peppy said. His face seemed to be twisted between envy and happiness. "That, and it doubles as transportation for Eric and Sarah, since they don't have ships." Peppy's face disappeared as an incredibly sleek and streamlined ship appeared. It had an impressive white paint job (something Eric would have complained had he not been unconscious) and an image of an arrow piercing a wall on the left wing. On the underside was scrawled, "Silent Arrow."

"Cloak, Stealth, great maneuverability, could use a little work on the lasers and bombs but it's nothing Slippy can't handle. Several other useful gizmos came with it, and since Eric has gotten us out of two messes so far, I felt this appropriate."

Even Fox, who was used to seeing incredible ships, had his eyes twinkling from beholding the Silent Arrow.

"And the other one, …" The Silent Arrow disappeared and another ship came up. This one wasn't nearly as thin, in fact it was a bit bulky, with a white war-hammer wreathed in lighting on the left side, under the wing, but there was no denying what the gigantic front cannons meant. What this thing hit would not be getting back up anytime soon. "The Thunder Hammer. Isn't as flashy as the Silent Arrow, but has some serious firepower. Maneuverability can sometimes be a hazard, but this thing has some decent shields, enough to get through it. A sneaky trick is to use the belly-mounted cannon as a surprise attack, and the bombs even have a limited homing ability (more than I can say for the Silent Arrow). So, who wants which one?"

"I'll take the Thunder Hammer." Sarah said after much debilitation. "I guess that means Eric has the Silent Arrow?"

"I guess so. He can bitch and moan as much as he wants when he gets up." Falco put in.

Falco was about to show them the booklet when the conversation came to an abrupt and unsatisfactory end with Bill dashing back into the room, fear written on his muzzle.

"MacBeth rebels… they're headed this way.


	17. Macbeth! Chapter XVII

Chapter VIII

Falco immediately sprung up, Sarah gave an exasperated look and exchanged nervous glances with Katt, Bill looked worried, Fox and Eclipse seemed ready and Krystal was tending the out-cold Eric. Fox began giving orders. "Falco, Eclipse, get in your ships, Krystal doesn't have one suitable for battle so she's staying behind, Bill, get your Defender IV, Katt, get the Katt's Paw, and Sarah, you don't know how to fly, correct?"

"Nope." Sarah seemed exasperated. Eric probably did, he had WAY too much free time on his hands (he played SF64 on cockpit mode just to see the buttons and guess what they did, for crying out loud) but Sarah didn't. Fox and the rest dashed to get their ships while Krystal and Sarah just sat behind to tend the people in the medical ward, which was basically only Eric and another fox that either had a hood over his face or had his muzzle buried into his pillow, among few others. How he took breath was anyone's guess but he somehow managed. However, he seemed to be sleeping while Eric just sort of lay there in a coma.

Dashing out of the hospital ward, roughly thirty seconds later the sound of ships could be heard through the walls. Sarah was silently mumbling under her breath, hoping that nothing serious would happen while Krystal could be heard cursing about being dead weight.

Unfortunately for them, MacBeth was already prepared…

(Fox and Co.)

"Come on, let's move it." Fox ordered while Falco and him got suited up in ArWings. Slippy and Peppy manned the Great Fox's weapon systems and when they hit space, Fox and Falco flew out into space.

Through the inky blackness of stars, Bill and roughly two dozen Husky squadron members were flying from Katina, along with Eclipse piloting the Silver Fox and Katt in the Katt's Paw. Everyone (especially Falco) sat there with their fingers on the triggers, ready to blow any sight of a foe straight to hell.

After about thirty seconds, Bill muttered something about unpunctuality when maybe a five foot wide space craft that looked like a flying saucer literally flew under Katt's ship's nose. An odd sound like a bunch of wind came from behind them as the darkness lit up in several dozen laser shots!

(Eric)

"mm… I'm tired, my back aches, lemmealone…" Eric grumbled into his pillow. Krystal was massaging his back, something Eric took very private pleasure in. Or he would if his sensory organs were working…

"Eric, doze. Rest. Sleep a bit. That was quite a beating you took." Sarah said, trying to get Eric to calm down. It wouldn't be the last major injury in his career, far from it.

"I hope Fox and the others are okay in space…" Krystal said, worried. Both she and Sarah were giving feelings of unrest being unable to help out in the inevitable combat above. Eric was actually trying to do something about it all but was easily forced back into his bed by Krystal. Eric started to stir and tried to get up, only to be forced back into bed by Sarah.

Meanwhile, the hooded fox in one of the other hospital beds seemed to be moving his hand up and crooking his finger, then instantly getting back into bed whenever anyone was looking. He had Eric's attention, as much of it as he could give, anyway. Krystal and Sarah had gone to tend patients in another room and Eric seized the opportunity to investigate. Limping out of his hospital bed, it took every ounce of willpower he had to keep from screaming. He actually slumped to the floor in pain and fought (with the help of Krystal's enchanted bandages) to his feet and limped over to the bed of the hooded canine.

"Eric…" It was the fox from his dream! Before Eric could open his mouth the being spoke. He spoke with such tenacity that Eric felt an almost involuntary will to obey. "You are needed, Shroud. The hanger…" And with that he handed him a map.

Nodding agreement and with such disappointment that he would not figure out the identity of this enigma yet, he slumped his newfound vest over (Peppy let him keep it and Sarah had patched the holes) his back and hid the submachine gun holsters and Murasma's scabbard within the back. Eric noted with some dismay that Murasma's blade was glowing red again; he felt that was a warning sign about his physical condition, even if he felt otherwise. Taking a look at the map, it showed the entire floor of the Husky HQ. Limping through the corridors, he saw an elevator off of the next T section to the right.

Every step brought agony, but Eric had to go on. Danger lurked somewhere, and either Eric was a moth to the flames or he felt a sense of duty to his newfound friends. Hell, he had none before who would do something for him, and after Krystal patching him up he felt obligated to her husband. Something like that, Eric thought.

Footsteps! Breaking into as fast as he could possibly go with his back protesting everything and dove into the elevator. Checking all of the buttons… "F1, F2, F3, B1, B2, B3… Ahah! Here it is! Hangar." Mashing the button, the door closed and Eric got a view of Sarah with some medical supplies walking just as the door closed. Just as it closed, he saw a, "What the…?" look on her face but she walked it off.

All he could do know was wait for the moment when the doors would open. He'd be expecting several dozen guards who would force him back to the hospital bed (or worse, Krystal and Sarah who would chew him out) but he had no choice.

The elevator was open, Eric ready to sneak out quietly, but his hastily-laid out plan went out like a mild firecracker when the entire hangar was practically empty. Almost all of the Huskies were out in battle! If they failed… it would not be pretty.

Ducking around some of the Defender III ships in the hangar to hide from the few guards set to defend the planet rather than go out to meet the rebels and found two ships that seemed to be set aside. One said "Silent Arrow," the other said "Thunder Hammer."

"Hmm, now that's what I'm talking about." Eric said, getting up silently to the Thunder Hammer and quickly finding the ignition key was lacking. "D'oh!" Eric muttered by way of habit. Trying to climb into the Silent Arrow proved as fruitless, Eric was going to have to improvise. He noted some of the design notches; the engine of the Silent Arrow seemed to be much closer to the cockpit than that of the (huge, bulky) Thunder Hammer. Quietly opening the hood, he peered inside to see if he could find any way of improvising the engine running for either ship…

(Fox and Co.)

The fight was not going very well. MacBeth (somehow) had a cloaking ship, rendering the naked eye null. Radar could have picked them up but most power was aimed at the weapons and shields, not enough was dedicated to radar. Several huskies either had found their doom at the cold vacuum of space, several others were able to back off before an untimely demise. In addition, Bill had already had to back off while Eclipse, Fox and Katt were already feeling rather battered. The Great Fox helped, but it wasn't nearly enough to stem the tide. Didn't help that the rebels looked nearly identical to the Huskies…

Some radio clips could be heard through the com-link system. One of which was very welcome and the sound of Corneria sending some backup for the group, but many others could be heard, like Venom battle cries and aircraft reports. Then one came that puzzled the living hell out of Fox, the only one good enough in the air to be able to think about something different than flying at the same time…

"Embrace The End."

Something about how The and End were capitalized on the textual aid seemed unnatural… and the ship it came from was definitely high quality and was piloted like a master. There was no way that was a mere lion piloting that ship…

(Eric)

Now or never. Bite the bullet. Something or other. He had found what seemed like an outlet in the engine through a part in the hull which had absolutely nothing through it. There was even a little opening in the hull that was sealed perfectly in the size of…

"Murasma." Eric pulled out the blade and made a few quick measurements about the small hole the size of Murasma's point. After bracing himself, he muttered, "In the name of science." And plunged the sword into the hole. From behind, which was quickly proven to be a rather stupid idea.

The engines immediately erupted, now that a power source was available. Emitting an involuntary scream in surprise as the rumble tossed him to the ground, he unwittingly gained the attention of the Huskies on ground guard! Amidst the calls of "What the…?!" Eric dashed around the red flame spewing from the engine, jumped onto the foot lift and rolled into the cockpit. Looking around for the takeoff button, he found it in a blue button with big bold letters. Crunching the "TAKEOFF" button, the shockwaves emanating from the ship caused the huskies to back off. Right around now Sarah and Krystal marched in to check the distress calls, and more than one look of desperation crossed Krystal's and Sarah's faces. Great, I'm going to be facing a chewing when I get back here… Eric thought. The VTOL function of the jet was kicking in marvelously, and Eric flew out of the open hangar doors, heading for space. Kicking on the radar, he booted up shields and lasers. Weapons: 50%. Shields: 25%, 15% on radar and the remaining ten percent go to… hmm… miscellaneous… could come in handy.

(Fox and Co.)

The remains of the huskies, Eclipse and Katt had their hands full dealing with the MacBeth rebels, Fox and Falco went to engage the new ship.

It wasn't easy. The creatures ship could turn on a dime, so much it seemed like it floated rather than truly flew. It even sent a Husky crashing to Katina in a single blow!

Flying through the inky blackness with lasers flying all around, the new ship was ripping through the battlefield like it owned the concept of violence. Letting loose a bomb, it scattered Fox and Falco and began to take pot shots at Falco's rear.

"I can't shake him!" Falco shouted desperately. Pulling a U-turn, Fox tried to get on the lion's tail. Hamming the trigger of the joystick as fast as it would possibly fire and got in a few hits. The first few spattered off of the shields like rain off a window pane, but some got through as the lion broke off of the attack, leaving Falco's now completely battered ArWing in relative safety. Moving more power from radar and other things besides the lasers and bombs to shields, Falco pressed the attack as Fox let off a Nova Bomb.

The lion's ship took it without missing a beat, although it looked like the shields were lowered quite a bit. The hull, however, lost none of its integrity. U-turning back, it proceeded to press the attack!

Making a pass, Falco let off a volley of lasers as the lion barrel-rolled, deflecting them at random angles. One of which caught a rebel, piercing a hole through its center. It took a hit from Fox that it didn't reflect in time, but it seemed that energy particles in the fabric of space itself started collecting around its center… Fox's danger alarm in his head went off. "MOVE!" Falco had barely enough time to barrel-roll out of the way before an incredibly concentrated laser of rainbow appearance cut through space like a hot knife through butter. It literally incinerated one of the rebels and took off one of the Katt's Paw's wings! The rest of the group nearly had the rebels under wraps, but this lion in this unbelievable ship was taking all of their skill just to maintain! Nearly hopeless! The ship barrel-rolled to the right turning almost 100 degrees to confront Fox face to face. It seemed to be regaining strengths from the incredibly-strong laser and was coming around for another pass at Fox. Fox couldn't miss this chance to get rid of this guy. Letting off another bomb, it sped towards the lion… impact in three… two… Falco was lining up behind ready to give the ship a killer laser enema…

"No!" The lion had pulled out of the way at the last possible second, leaving Falco to swallow the bomb! The shields down, the hull would be crushed, Falco would die. Time slowed to a crawl as Falco was trying to fly out of the way and the ArWing crumpled. Falco would be screaming at the shattered windshield as the pressure gauge dropped like a stone.

"Not this day, Falco." A voice said, seemingly out of nowhere. Strange energy beams were connecting Falco to seemingly thin air as the pressure gauge slowly crawled back up to 100%.

"What the…!" Falco cried out as the other end of the strange white beams washed over the background of Katina and had a slight water-ripple effect to it. Before their eyes, the ripple turned into the Silent Arrow out of thin air!

The other ends of the grappling beams latched from Eric's ship to Katt's, which was already headed for Katina to patch up the wing. "Take Falco back, that ship is nearly dead." Eric commanded. Katt didn't really have an objection, as Falco's life hung and she was backing off anyway. Most of the rebels and all of the Huskies had either backed off or been killed (most of the Huskies had survived and vice versa) All that really remained a threat to each other was Fox, Eric and the mysterious, god-like in power lion.

"Be drained of life!" A hoarse-sounding voice came from the comlink of the lion. It was charging up the hyper-laser again! Fox was out of bombs and the ones on board the Silent Arrow sucked hell. This complicated things…

Charging up a laser, Fox locked onto the new ship. Eric did the same and almost over-steered; the Silent Arrow was THAT maneuverable. The lion locked on to Eric and started pounding Eric's shields a new one (which wasn't exactly that hard) as Eric tried every trick in the book to shake him. He almost had the laser up to finish the job! Fox, without another second to lose, fired at the back of the ship. The powered-up homing blast was aimed directly at the shields, which subsequently powered down. Eric was nearly turned around and had the Silent Arrow's puny lasers aimed at the lion too, as it flew away at surprising speed as it escaped into hyperspace.

"We'll meet again!" Was called as the lion escaped into space.

"Yeah!" Fox called. Space was desolate, save for Fox and Eric, the rebels had given up. The Huskies trekked back to Katina while Eric was telling Fox he'd back him up.

"You go first. You're ship is banged up, mine's in relatively perfect health."

"But you were taking some heavy hits there…" Fox pointed out.

"Uh… no I wasn't." Eric said, hastily assigning more power to the coolant system.

"OK. Try not to get killed patrolling out here while I limp this thing back." The Great Fox was already headed back for Katina, and it hadn't gotten on a bead on the lion throughout the entire fight so mainly helped subdue the rebels.

Eric was watching Fox's ArWing fly into the Great Fox, almost lazily, slipping back into the cockpit and yanking out one if the Smarties candies he kept as a secret stash when maybe four lasers flew over his head!

"What the…?!?" Out of the corner of the rear-view mirror, another ship, Eric couldn't tell if it was some new Wolfen model or a Defender III, was shooting lasers at him!

Spinning around to deflect them, Eric tried to get a better view at the pilot. Demanding into the microphone for the comlink, Eric yelled, "Identify yourself!" To no avail. The aim of the other being sucked hell and probably couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, but the fact that Eric was spinning around probably didn't hurt.

"Who are you and what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Eric demanded through, when he saw it.

Through the other windshield, a terrifying image like Fox on cocaine stared back malevolently through the dark, tinted glass.


	18. Space Duel Chapter XVIII

Chapter IX

Eric swiveled the Silent Arrow around to face his assailant. Getting a good view of his foe, it definitely seemed like Fox with glowing red eyeballs. Out of a reflection on the glass of the windshield, he could still see the Great Fox descending under some clouds. Drat. He tried poking the communications button to get a hold of him…

"This com system requires new long-range software. Consult your local dealer." Eric stared blankly at the button and was torn between chasing after Fox, yelling some profanity, or breaking the flight stick. He finally settled on his favorite TV quote.

"D'oh!"

                He turned to fly to the GF when a virtual laser wall stopped him from progressing. The other ship had sprouted a cannon and was blocking his turn route! Skidding around in midair, he turned to face his assailant and slammed on the brakes, causing his ship to hover.

      "Who are you?" Eric demanded.

      "Our third encounter and you don't know who I am…" It said, drawing out the words.

      "Third?!"

      "Don't play nonsense! You don't seem to remember our meeting in the street… lovely sword, your blade is, pity none of us can use it."

      "You were that rat? Hmm. The form fits the personality." Space was filled with a horrible laugh, like that of a predator closing on prey.

      "I always let the new victims know their assailant. I am Sanskort." At that he shape shifted behind the glass, into a scrawny, purple humanoid with veins running across its surface like a DesertRunner motorcycle. It's eyes were glowing red, burning with an intelligent urge to kill.

      Eric stared. He edged for his manual, knocked it out of his pocket and glanced at the title. "Doppelganger," it read. He didn't have enough time to go into any more details as Sanskort's ship twisted, the wings turning into arms and the cockpit becoming the head. The jet boosters in the back were still there.

      "Well. Nice ship. I'll be sure to let the junkheap know they've been victim of a robbery." Eric taunted.

      "Well, human, now comes the time to end your reign of heroism. Embrace The End!" And with that, the torso-like ship reached out with both arms, ready to crush Eric's ship into a pancake.

      Had the Silent Arrow been slower, it would have met it's doom right then. An ArWing might have been able to escape, but it probably would be limping with a missing engine. Any slower than that and it would have been nothing but assorted parts.

      U-Turning, Eric let loose several laser blasts. They were about half the width of an ArWing's shots, and not nearly as long. It didn't seem to scratch Sanskort's ship much, which Sanskort was all too pleased to rub it in for.

      "Hmm. How feeble." Sanskort said, getting his ship to scratch where the Eric just had shot. Foosball! Sanskort brought his ship back and backhanded the Silent Arrow. The red lights indicating shields were at critical status started flashing, and the hull didn't seem like it could take more than the shields. Administering coolant to the shields, the power of the SA was tapped.

      Getting as far away as humanly possible, Sanskort clapped his ships hands together and started to look like it was charging up a laser. Barrel-rolling out of the way, a blue beam lit up space like a solar flare in a perfectly dark room. A random meteor floating by got in the way of the laser, and was instantly cremated. There were no visible remains, and if there were, they wouldn't fill a teaspoon designed for Lilliputians, if that!

      Sanskort lumbered forward with his jets on full blast. Eric took note of the poor maneuverability but the force that could be felt when it takes a swing.

      Boosting around, the swerved it and U-turned, letting loose a plasma bomb at Sanskort's torso-like ship. It flew past him by a millimeter, and even though Eric mashed the button again to detonate it early, it didn't respond.

      "Crap." The Silent Arrow must have no way to pre-detonate bombs, and when the bomb finally did, it was too far away to do any damage. Eric tried to bank off when his Sanskort's dull brown ship suddenly went black-and-white. Uh oh…

      There was the image of Sanskort's arm coming at Eric, then blocking out the view window. When the precog vision was over, Sanskort was already halfway to smacking the SA!

      There was no way in the nine hells any ship could have escaped, and the SA was no exception. The long, metallic fingers wrapped themselves around the SA and started squeezing the life out of the ship. Eric heard one wing :::snap:::, then the other one as it slowly started crushing it. Shields were down so far Eric was surprised he still had some, while the world seemed to stop when the glass started to crack…

      "This is the Cornerian Patrol! We have made it to the site of the battle reported by Sir Fox McCloud and his companions! And… Jesus tap-dancing Christ! What in the name of hell IS that thing?!? It looks like some twisted torso with hands! And there's a ship in his hands!"

      Sergeant Tracy Chalmers, head of the Cornerian Patrol, had answered the call headed out by Bill. Now arriving, there seemed to be nothing more than laser traces, except for that… that… thing…

      "Units Alpha-1 and Beta-3, open fire! Don't hit its hand! Alpha-2, try and get a tractor beam out there and get that ship out of there!"

(Eric)

      Suddenly, it didn't seem like it was holding on so tight anymore… in fact, it seemed like it was loosing its grip… huzzah!

      Eric boosted out of the fingers so fast for his ship's battered condition it wasn't even funny anymore. The wings were broken, the glass was holding onto by a shard… Slippy would be working on it for weeks, if not longer. The pressure was going down, for crying out loud! Not as fast as back on the Great Fox, but still, he'd have maybe five minutes before he started to feel it.

      "Halt!" Came through on the comlink. Eric was about to belt some remark into the not-working comlink when he found it was targeted at Sanskort's ship. The torso and arms turned again into the body of the ship and wings, and the head became the cockpit. The ship was clearly battered, the CP did a job…

      U-turning, Sanskort's ship opened the hatch on the back to let loose a ton of minefields. One of the Beta ships tried to follow and managed to fly out with the hull and shields in critical condition. Lasers got absorbed by the mines and Sanskort's chilling yell could be heard as he got away.

      "We'll meet again, human!"

(Back on Katina)

       Eric landed successfully after his encounter with Sanksort. He had immediately gotten the ship to the hangar successfully and had used the short-range communicator to relay what happened after they left to Fox. He went in to check on Eclipse while, as Eric got out, struggling to undo the seatbelt, put to the mercy of Sarah and Krystal. Katt, Falco and Bill were already there to congratulate him, but kept giving Sarah and Krystal somewhat fearful looks. The two looked murderous.

      The Silent Arrow's cockpit opened and Eric leaned over the back to grab Murasma. The ship went dead as soon as he did so and the blade's fire was nearly gone. It must have lost some power fueling the ship. Eric was about to step down and accept a well-won victory, but his face fell as soon as he saw Sarah and Krystal, both of which looked EXTREMELY peeved.

      "Eric, you low-lying cheapskate! I thought you were hurt!" Sarah's voice was trembling with barely-contained rage.

      "Yeah, who would have thought he didn't want Krystal's hands on him?" Falco put in.

      The next sentence was unanimous through the group. "Shut UP, Falco!"

      "What in the name of Krazoa where you doing?!" Krystal demanded.

      "Hey, uh, you know me…" Eric said, trying to decide whether he was going to burst into uncontrollable laughter or become humbled even more. "If there's something interesting happening, I'm gonna end up there…"

      "Eric… mother of god, are you REALLY that bored on… where we come from?" Sarah exploded.

      "Hey. What's happening?" Fox said, walking from the hangar with a slightly bandaged Eclipse.

      "This… this… roguish… guy," Sarah shrieked at a loss for words. "Is supposed to be resting!" Eric tried to look less in pain than he was, but jumping down off of the Silent Arrow was a bit much for his battered body. Instead of landing gracefully, he hit the ground, then stumbled. He staggeringly got to his feet.

      "Eric is lucky he's not dead, do you want to know exactly how we found him?"

      Fox nodded as Krystal pointed to an incredibly small trail of blood drops that led out of the hospital wing into the hangar where the marks of a ship that had just left were there.

      "Hey, Fox, he reminds me of you." Bill said, chuckling. "Doesn't give up no matter how hopeless the situation.

      "Yep, that's me. Hey, I'll be going now-" Eric said, trying to duck out of the situation.

      "NOT SO FAST!"

      Fox cringed at Sarah's freakishly loud voice, ears twitching. "Lay off, the odds that WE would have survived if he wasn't there are slimmer than his survival odds-"

      "HEY!"

      "-Are now," Fox continued, oblivious to Eric's interruption. "He saved Falco… er… again, and the rest of us wouldn't have held out much longer."

      Sarah looked conflicted, then bit her lip. "Fine. As long as he's okay. Eric?"

      "Sheesh, I didn't know you cared. Yeah?"

      "Of course I care. Now DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" She screamed. "I'm not supposed to grow gray hairs until I'm old!"

      "At this rate, that'll happen in no time!" Falco put in, mock-cheerfully.

      "**Shut UP, Falco!**"

      Krystal rolled her eyes. "Try living with your whole body covered in hair. Eric, get your attempted-hero ass back in the hospital ward."

      "But-" Eric tried to object.

      "**Now!**" Krystal and Sarah yelled at the same time. Eric sheepishly sheathed Murasma and walked, knuckles dragging on the floor, into the hospital wing. Falco, Bill, Katt and Eclipse followed him. Krystal and Sarah stayed to talk with Fox.

      "Jeezum crow, Sarah, you sound like his mom."

      "Sorry, Fox, it's just I was worried. I'm almost two years older than him, and since I've known him he's either been getting beaten up, slipping into an inferiority complex or talking about things he would do if given the chance."

      "And is this not something he's doing, helping people?"

      "I didn't think he would actually DO it!"

      Fox laughed while Krystal put in: "Seriously, he's been talking of doing things like this?" 

      "Pretty much, yeah, I didn't know he was such a thrill-seeker!"

      "I didn't know I was going to be one too, until my dad showed me the beauty of an ArWing." Fox said.

      "Let's just mellow out. Worry will do us in if we don't focus. And I'd better get my staff and patch Eric up. Again." Krystal said wearily.

      They walked inside in higher spirits than most of them had been recently. And to think, Sarah thought, she owed it to one of her best friends off on a seemingly suicidal mission…

(Eleven O'clock, Solar Cycle A.

That evening.)

      Eric was tossing and turning in his bed. Not from insomnia, but rather the chains Krystal had used to secure him. He couldn't squeeze out and Murasma was too far away. Oh well. Eric let himself fall into a sleep, deeper than one he'd been into for awhile now.

      Or would have.

      Opening his eyes, he found himself being thrust through a milky gateway, Sharpclaw club in hand. Tumbling head over heels, his last encounter in dream world with the hooded figure was fast-forwarded to where he was in the blink of an eye.

      "…Don't you?" It said. Eric took another look at it as it removed its hood.


	19. Out of this Plane, Chapter XIX

Chapter XIX

      "You already know who I am. Don't you?" The fox said, staring at Eric. It definitely was a fox.

      "I've already guessed. But that's impossible, you're-"

      "-Dead?" He laughed heartily. "Yes. I was. But considering that this is as you would say, 'just a dream', how can you be sure?"

      "I've seen enough in the last few weeks to not be sure anymore, James."

      "I was right. You do know who I am. And, seriously, Eric, you've grown up. In the last few weeks you've seen things that have only been fantasy. Now, it's your reality. You've been thrust into a world that up until now hasn't existed. How can you be so sure that a way to raise the dead?"

      "Of course – the resurrection alters. But how by Fate's hand-basket did you come back? Fox told me – if the recipient is dead too long, it won't work. And if it did, they'd be crushed under their own weight from the weakness effect."

      "Yes. But where do you think the dead souls go?"

      "Uh… reincarnation?" At this feeble attempt at understanding, James laughed again.

      "There is a place called the Outer Plane, where dead souls go. Some places, it is as happy as the stereotypical land we call Heaven. Others, it is as dark and depressing as the place we call Hell."

      "An uplifting thought."

      "Come with me, Eric, and I will show you what happened. Your unanswered questions shall be answered. And you will know of your title in our first encounter." At that, the seemingly-late James McCloud stepped backwards through a previously-nonexistent portal. Left with nothing else to do, Eric followed.

      As soon as Eric walked (floated?) through the portal, a feeling not like being on a roller coaster pulled from him behind his back, like he was on a fishhook through his middle. He was flung forward and came to a skidding stop in front of James, who looked amused. 

      "From what I've seen, I wouldn't have thought you'd be the kind of person to bow to people."

      "Har har." Eric said crossly. "You know, I'm very interested in how you survived."

      "If you want to get really technical, I didn't."

      "That's impossible."

      "Stop thinking about impossibilities! You just did several things that were impossible! Think about what can!"

      "Okay. I'll shut up now."

      "When my soul arrived in the Outer Plane, I wasn't sure what was worse. The pain I went through to get here, or the fact that I could no longer see Fox. Some of it was lifted when I met up with my beloved again, along with several old friends, but there was still something, like –"

      "-An open hole." Eric finished for him.

      "Exactly. So when I heard that some scientists were planning on infusing an item with life, something which you can tell, is in short supply there, Vixy and I immediately signed up as volunteers. The plan was to get a material which had different properties in the Material Plane –"

      "Material what? And who's Vixy, again? Refresh my memory."

      "The land of the living, and my dead wife, Shroud."

      "Oh yeah, I –"

      "Knew that, right. Keep listening, try to keep your mouth shut." Eric looked full of mock hurt. "We found materials usually only found in what you would call fantasy. Tirar!"

      "Pretty stupid name for a material," Eric commented.

      "That's not one of the materials, it's a command word for your blade."

      "My what?" Eric said and ducked to avoid being skewered by Murasma, which had come flying through the air. A coat of arms could be seen on a wall where the blade was set. The other side seemed to have held a bow, but was empty now.

      "'Tirar,' is the command word for, "come here," for your sword."

      "So you set the diamond blade up there!"

      "It's not diamond. If you look closely –" He pointed at the blade, which, while glowing, wasn't on fire. "It has a different tinge and GLOWS. The name of the material is dracocite, found in trace quantities only on the Outer Plane."

      "So I've been using a sword flimsically constructed from the land of dead people. Haley Joel Osmont has nothing on me!"

      "Silence, knave!" James bellowed, then cracked up. "We recently found a dracocite mine just on the other side of explored territory," he said, still laughing. "You can't really say on the edge of the Outer Plane, because it's effectively limitless. If you 'die' in the Outer Plane, you vanish back to your home, which you will see examples of when you follow me into there, with one of three tries gone. Use all three, and you get reincarnated back into the Material Plane, a.k.a. the land of the living, mindwiped."

      "Uh… bit harsh, no?" Eric didn't even want to go into the details on how one could die while dead.

      "Using the rip in planes created with the perfected construction of the first resurrection alter, we were able to take our dead souls and infuse them into the items we made with the dracocite. I got put into your glowing blade, but I haven't heard from Vixy yet; she had to wait a while longer." James continued.

      "I was originally intending to give the sword to Fox, but after a seemingly endless period of time, I was unable to find his exact soul signature. Then, another one came up – nearly identical. I mistook it for Fox and had the sword Murasma bind with it. It was later when I found that I had not chosen Fox. I was disappointed –"

      "Let me guess - that's putting it mildly?"

      "Yes. Let me continue." James said. There was no trace of anger in his voice; his experience with death must have made him mind-bogglingly patient. "I was disappointed, for I thought that since you were in another dimension than Fox was, that I would never see him and the whole project would be a total and complete waste. But then, they offered to take an item and give it inter-dimensional properties. Layman terms, the ability to switch dimensions. I kind of figured that, since I had mistook you for Fox, that I would be correct in guessing that you would be attracted to things that make you look better in style. Was I correct?"

      "Depends. Whose style?"

      "Yours. Anyway, I got my first glimpse of you and already had my doubts. Your personal life was a mess and you had no experience of the supernatural. How could he have been so close to my son?"

      "Hey, I have to correct a statement there. I have no experience of the supernatural ACTUALLY HAPPENING TO ME. All I know of the cool things that you take for granted are magnificent things on what I call optical disks."

      "Ah, yes, your little video games. I was a bit shocked when I found out that the majority of my life was invented by a bunch of programmers, but then again, so were the dozens of other people who came from your reality who found the fantasy things that they had either neglected or never thought was real, only for entertainment. Back to the subject, I left the newly-enchanted shades, mainly to see what you would do. And there is where I saw one of the reasons I mistook your soul signature for Fox's. Curiosity. A standard being would have thrown them away, but you put them on and came back when you saw a world of fantasy that to your age you had only dreamed of. Isn't that right, Eric?"

      "Pretty much, yeah."

      "Then came your first fight-or-flight instance, which you showed a courage I wouldn't have thought from your lifestyle in your reality." James cocked an eyebrow. "You seem to have many surprises to you."

      "That's me."

      "The events unfolded, and now you are here. In our world. Off to stop Venom from destroying everything that we have held dear."

      Eric made a motioning with his hand, as if expecting James to continue his sentence. When James merely gave him a quizzical look, Eric finished the sentence for him. "Destroy everything, _again_."

      "When you put it in that perspective, you're kind of right. Come with me, Eric, into _my _world. The last of the experiment is nearing completion, and I want you to be present."

      "This wouldn't have anything to do with the title you gave me on our first encounter, would it, James? 'Soul-carrier?'"

      James only smiled and backed up into a portal that had just appeared. Left with no other current options, Eric walked through as well.

      Eric awoke on his back, staring up at didn't exactly seem to be sky. It was a swirling blue vortex, constantly either sweeping stuff up or spitting stuff back out. Some of the stuff that went in seemed to be loose odds and ends, the stuff that came out looked like the barest food resources. The middle of a walkway, with swirling clouds of sapphire mist with a plain, simple wooden door in the center bottom with a name written on it. The "street" between two rows of the house-mist were teeming with transparent beings of so many different races, ethnicity and appearances that Eric immediately saw – there was not just these two dimensions. Oh no- there were so many more that it wasn't even funny anymore. "Crazy neighborhood, huh, James?" Eric asked to the fox, who was standing maybe twenty feet away.

      "Yep. You haven't seen nothing yet, this is the good side of town. If you head over there-" He pointed in a direction where a faint red glow could be seen. "You'll find yourself fighting for your very existence over there."

      Eric took a few moments or so to check on some names, to see if he could recognize him. Van Zan, The Magic Taco, Shmi Skywalker, Sparda, Rose Marie Chaykin, Green… "James… who the hell ARE these people?! Magic Taco?!?"

      "Yeah, we're all a bit worried about him…" came James' response. Rolling his eyes, Eric followed. He recognized a few, but James seemed to want him somewhere, so it wasn't exactly like he could complain.

      After walking, floating, moving across the mass-less world of the Outer Plane, James brought Eric to a large, solid building. Carved from stone, it looked like an old Roman library. It was also easily twice the size of said library, and etched in stone read _Hall of Champions_.

      "James… where the hell is this?"

      "The greatest minds, warriors, and talents reside in here. Like every other building here, it is effectively limitless once you go inside, but we made it like this to impress people more. You can go first." James said.

      "Age before beauty." James laughed heartily. He walked up the stone steps, Eric close behind. He could see several semi-transparent people behind him of various physical appearances. A red-haired human woman said, "Hey, James, is this the kid you found?"

      "Yep. I have to go, Rose, gotta show him to Winfred."      "You know, James, for a world with multiple dimensions the Outer Plane must have some of the worst names EVER." Eric said when they were inside the building.

      James laughed. "I fail to see what's so much better about, 'Eric Shroud.'"

      "I'll concede that part," Eric grumbled.

      Eric continued to follow James through the Hall of Champions. He was in a long hallway with big rooms off to the side that led to what looked like coliseum rooms. Up on top, there were big signs that gave several names of incredibly powerful fighters. Two that Eric saw were Inu-Yasha and Smaug, but James bade him to hurry up, which Eric did.

      After walking what felt like the depth of the Mariana Trench, Eric finally found himself in a room with several scientists. One came forward.

      "Winfred, this is Eric. The one Murasma chose."

      "Interesting. Such a naïve human boy, gaining the respect of the first dracocite blade…"

      "Hey, I'd watch what you say about me. I can get VERY angry…"

      "Congratulations for proving my point. James, are you ready for the final process?"

      "As ready as I'll ever be."

      "Great. Eric, you can watch this…" Winfred had an ulterior motive for this; one that would ultimately benefit all of mankind.

      As James started to walk to a piece of machinery that looked like those spherical cages they use to train people to go into space and see how it feels like to be drunk, one of the scientists came up to Eric. A gray vixen in (as they all were) a white lab coat, with neck-length brown hair. She looked at James as he went into the machine, and then looked at Eric.

      "So, you must be the kid he found?"

      "The one and only, I guess."

      "Hey, could you do me a favor?"

      "Uh… sure, okay…"

      "As you and him are going back into the Material plane… could you say hi to Fox for me?"

      "Uh… ooookay… dare I ask who from?"

      "Vicenzia Hohleren. Just say Vixy."

      "Are you his mom or something? I remember a Vixy…"

      Vixy laughed, while James, who was in but the power wasn't turned on, said, "Not everyone here is Fox's mom, Eric." Then started laughing uncontrollably.

      "No. His fiancé."

      "I'm not sure whether to say, 'that sucked,' now that you're here, or, 'okay, yeah.'"

      "How about both?"

      "Yeah. That sucks. Okay, yeah." Vixy chuckled heartily and then said, "Okay, Eric, you'd better head over there. Almost done." The machine that James was in was starting to hum and the building was reacting like the San Andreas Fault to a Richard Simmons marathon.

      "Uh… doesn't this put me closer, rather than furthur away? I feel like my existence is threatened."

      "Don't worry, Eric." Winfred said. Not very reassuringly, but he said it. "Everything will be fine."

      "Fine?! Look at James, he's sprouting white light and yelling like his wife died." He turned to Vixy. "No offense." He got a questioning look.

      The white light was now almost completely engulfing James and the viewpoint was shaking uncontrollably. Scientists were grabbing onto things, and Eric was about to follow suit when Winfred bade him to stay there.

      "To hell with this!" Eric never got the chance to move. Suddenly, with the white light in full swing, James vanished. The blob of colorless luminosity suddenly lurched at Eric, consuming him and wrenching his consciousness from this plane of reality. The last thing he heard was, "Success!"

      About an hour later, Eric groggily got to his feet. Funny… He felt about fifteen degrees hotter than he did before going to bed. Opening his eyes, his vision was neither dim nor blurry. The sunglasses were tossed off to the side, probably overnight. Whoa… this is too weird. I don't even have my contact lenses on and I can see! … wait. I got killed overnight, didn't I? Eric's ears felt rubbed raw after heaping around a piece of plastic for almost a month now. He was about to get up and leave his private living quarters when he walked by the mirror and nearly died of a heart attack.

      The reflection was not his, but James McCloud's!

      _"Pretty cool experiment, huh?"_


	20. The Fallen Return Chapter XX

Chapter X

Eric/James spun around, Eric staring at the mirror and seeing not himself, but the late James McCloud.

      "What the hell did you do to me?"

      _"Finished the experiment. I needed a host to maintain permanently-"_

      "So I'm a frickin' guinea pig?! There'd better be something I can do about this!"

      _"Afraid not. And no, you aren't a guinea pig. You remember your starting title? 'My soul carrier.' You signed yourself up by continuing."_

      "The James McCloud I knew wouldn't have pulled this… this… thing!" James' voice shrieked at a loss for words.

      _"And how do you know of the character of James McCloud? All you know is that he is the father of Fox, husband of Vixy, and died in a plane crash."_

      Eric couldn't come up with a half-assed answer to that. He was far too busy staring at his new fur, he looked… how much older was James? Forty years?! His tail… Actually, that last part was pretty darn cool.

      "There had better be a way to conceal this."

      _"There is. We had planned this. We had figured that most people would not be accustomed to having the supposed dead walking around in their midst, so we came up with this armband."_

      What looked like one of Fox's armband communicators had gotten scattered through whatever strange force propelled Eric into the Outer Plane. It had a logo of a coat of arms, with a sword on one side and a bow on the other.

      _"This button," _James said, Murasma sliding on the floor to point to a button on top, _"Morphs you back to your old shape. As I recall, your eyesight is subpar and you aren't an anchor to dimensions, so when you go back you'll need my sunglasses and contacts again."_

      "I'd listen, but my mom told me never to talk to creepy dead people who talk mumbo jumbo."

      _"There are a few other buttons for more gadgets," _James said (thought?) _"Unfortunately, there aren't any yet besides a clock, useful gadgets'll have to be fitted later."_

Eric took his watch off and pocketed it. It was, after all, his grandmother's watch, and it had sentimental value. He put the armband on and expected it to squeeze his hand off, but it fit perfectly.

      Eric breathed a sigh of relief. Far too soon, as it turned out. As soon as he hit the button, a pain unlike any other speared his body. His flesh seemed to be melting, his back crunching up as the tail _shlooped _up his spine, like a hundred thousand knives stabbing every nook and cranny of Eric's body. His vocal cords were paralyzed, he was in so much pain. He was barely able to scream, and what did come out was strangled and wouldn't have been heard through the wall.

      Five seconds later, Eric buried his face out of the metallic floor and slipped the sunglasses on before he disappeared. He had hit the floor hard, and as he got up the familiar twin crimson blots hit the floor, indicating he had a nosebleed. Eric almost laughed. After nearly getting killed for the umpteenth time, he was worried about a piddly nosebleed…

      "James…" Eric's voice was back as his own, thank god. "That hurt like hell. Couldn't you have at least done something to null my pain receptors?"

      _"Don't worry, you'll get used to it."_

      "Great… damn! You've been dead too long. Your head's in the clouds." Another unearthly laugh. Silence fell as Eric stopped up his nose and cleaned up the floor. He thought back to what he had done so far… he had been going along a mile a minute, never stopping to think of his actions. Trying to blow away that lion up in space and getting caught in Sanskort's grasp… it seemed trivial then, without a contemplation period, but thinking back, it seemed to scar him, reaching down into his soul and awakening a dark aspect.

      Either way, he just seemed… apart, again. Shooting Klepto, evil as he was… he didn't feel like nothing anymore when he took to time to think. Post combat shakes, emphasis on post, started hitting him. It was so easy to just think of it as a bad guy, but then, just like James said. It wasn't a game. It was a separate reality.

      "Hey… James…" Eric said. "Did you give Sarah her sunglasses?"

      James' next words prompted an investigation as soon as inhumanely possible.

      _"Who's Sarah?"_

      Eric turned on the holographic TV, just for the sake of watching something. First side effect of being away: despite all of the excitement, he was going through virtual reality withdrawal. Flipping through the channels with a remote James pointed out, nothing good was on. Thinking on how weird his life had turned in the last month or so… he began to wonder. There had been an interesting time skew in the first few weeks… how would it affect the time they were spending in the real world? His parents probably would be worried sick… Oh well. There are slightly more important things to be considering than being grounded for eternity, like saving an alternate universe.

      Slippy walked in just then. "I heard you talking to someone, who was it?"

      "Uh…" D'oh! Eric wasn't quite sure just how well the rest of the team would take all of it, but he was fairly certain that it wouldn't be a positive reaction. From his eyes, anyway. It would reopen a deep psychological wound for Fox, get constant questioning by Peppy, Slippy would probably want to run some experiment while Falco would probably give some smart-aleck remark about a split personality.

      Sliding Murasma under the cot with his feet in the hope that James wouldn't be able to talk to Slippy from under there, Eric came up with an excuse.

      "I tried to trick up this armband doohickey to be able to communicate. I succeeded, and sent a call to my parents. Did I get read the riot act…"

      Slippy laughed, oblivious to Eric's not-so-subtle shoving of his sword under his bed. Thank god for ignorance… "Heh. Came here without permission, huh?" Slippy squeaked.

      "You can say that."

      "Okay. Watching TV?"

      "Yeah. Your shows are like your food: What you don't have, you want. What you have, you don't want." Slippy laughed again, then left. Eric checked in the mirror again, he looked like himself. Phew. He pulled Murasma out from under the bed again.

      _"That was a little harsh, hmm?"_

      "Be quiet!" Eric hissed. No way it would have been heard through the door. "Seriously, finding out that you're alive could have serious repercussions!"

      _"Like what?"_ James said, his telepathic voice becoming slightly louder.

      Shoving Murasma back into the scabbard (and getting a slight _"mmf!" _of protest from James) Eric explained why he felt that he had to keep this a secret. Even James, who hadn't come all this way to find himself being put under constant wraps, could see the reason. "You see why?! Dead people just don't… pop up, infused in a… nifty-type glowing sword! Plus, Fox would die all over again." The blade just poked out from the scabbard, and as such he could still talk. He must only be able to communicate with those in what would be direct eye contact.

      _"You will tell them, eventually, right?" _James said hopefully.

"Of course I will." But even then, he had some doubts.

      _"I sense that you aren't being entirely truthful." _James said, suspicious. _"I may have-"_

      "Can it, just…" Eric was near hysteria now.

      _"Okay. Just promise me this."_

      "Okay…"

      _"Before you leave, tell Fox. Doesn't matter if no one else knows, just tell Fox."_

      "I'll do that." Eric said, hoping it wouldn't turn into one of his promises that there would be no way in hell he would be able to keep. He put Murasma/James back in the scabbard, then, after a cry of surprise at how the time was already 9:00 in the morning, hopped off to breakfast. His conscience protested slightly when he stuck Murasma in the scabbard and shoved it in the closet, but what else could he do? Nothing he could have ever done EVER would have been able to prepare him for something like this.

       After nearly running into the wall, he realized he had to put his contacts back in. Sliding the sunglasses back over his head, he went to the bathroom and was appalled by how far he had managed to let them fall back into having crust all over them. Cleaning them off, he squeezed them back in and trotted down to breakfast.

      On his way to the dining chamber, he stumbled across Krystal and Falco in Falco's room, pondering over the booklet Falco got in the city. Falco was mainly using Krystal as a translation tool, but that didn't stop Eric's traditional remark.

      "What was that you were saying about me? Something about not wanting to get my hands on Krystal? How hypocritical."

      "Shut up, Eric."

      Krystal rolled her eyes. "Hey, where are the bandages we gave you?! You're supposed to wear them until you heal?" Krystal suddenly said, realizing Eric had taken off some medical bandages he was given after slumping back to the hospital ward.

      "What makes you think I haven't?"

      "Turn around." Eric did so reluctantly. The back of his white T-shirt was mostly red from the ever-so-slight bleeding of an almost-closed wound.

      "Oh, come on, Krystal." Eric said, mock-pouting. "Hey- What's that you got there?"

      "I picked this up back in the city where you got your ass kicked. Again." Falco said with an air of superiority. "It was written in DPese, so I'm using Krystal to translate."

      "Using…? Pheh. And I thought you had more self-dignity than that, Krystal…" They both ignored him. "So what have you found so far?"

      "Well, not much. They use so much slang it's not funny."

      "Try me. I am the king of slang, yo gotta probwem wit dat, foo?"

      "Okay, okay, I get the picture…" Falco grumbled.

      "Looks like… holy crap…" Krystal said as she turned the page.

      "What?" Falco and Eric asked simultaneously.

      "This is giving some background on what Venom has planned. Apparently, they have a giant armada of extremely powerful ships that make the Cornerian army and their allies look like a raw peanut. It's still in the developmental stage, but if they pull this off…"

      Falco nodded, agreement on his face. "Total catastrophe. We gotta stop this."

      "Yeah, but doesn't Venom have nearly uncrackable defenses?" Eric put in.

      "Yeah, for an army. But there are tiny holes that only a small force has a hope of breaking through." Falco said cockily.

      "In other words, 'we can't afford one.'" Eric grumbled. "We have to show this to Pepper, this is enough for a search warrant and to legalize military force here.

      "You're right. I'll show this to Fox and have Slippy fax it off." Falco said. He took the booklet and went off to find Fox. Hopefully, the Cornerian Patrol wasn't gone by now, they might need the firepower.

      Eric went over for breakfast, waiting for a response from Slippy. Within about a half an hour, a transmission came in from Pepper.

      "Greetings, Eric." He said over the translator. "Fox there?"

      "Yeah, somewhere. You get the fax?"

      "Yes, and it is imperative that this establishment is shut down. This, 'armada,' could spell doom for the Cornerian Republic."

      "I'll get Fox, if you want me to."

      "Yes, that would be appreciated."

      Eric went to get Fox to tell him the General was about to talk to him about Venom's strange new armada. He, himself, felt it was impossible. How in the nine hells do you get that many powerful ships in such a short period of time?!? Either way, they aren't complete yet, so Eric hastened his pace.

      He quickly ran into Fox, who was on his way to take Pepper's call. Fox nodded before Eric could get the words out, then went to the communications room.

      Walking back to his room to check on James, Eric was wondering how he was going to keep it a secret. He didn't want to, but the SF team would have various, adverse effects if it was made public, and Eric felt that couldn't happen.

      Unsheathing the sword, the sound of a gasp of air could be heard. Eric jumped in surprise. "What was that?!" He said, closing the door with his foot.

      _"Nothing. Had you there for a second, didn't I?"_

      "Not as badly as you have, that's for sure," Eric muttered sarcastically, shoving the blade back into the scabbard. His conscience protested again, and this time it was harder not to bring the blade along.

      He continued to loaf around the corridor, getting himself a drink of water while he was at it, when, walking by Sarah's door, sipping his drink, he noticed Sarah's room was closed. Eric punched the opening button. Nothing happened, and when he got the _locked_ message he started to get worried.

      "Sarah?"

      "Go away!" Could be heard from inside, and it didn't sound like Sarah. It sounded like… a female version of Fox, with a cold, on a bad day with laryngitis.

      "What the…?!" Eric muttered. "Sarah, who's in there with you?!" Eric started using hacker brute force on the lock.

      "one one one one… crap! One one one two… crap! One one one three…" This continued up until about "One six four nine…" When the door slid open. Success!

      "Alright, Sarah, you've got some explaining to do…" When he spit out his mouthful of water at the sight.

      It wasn't Sarah.

      The red vixen that was in Sarah's room slunk back onto her bed. First three words that entered Eric's mind were, "What the hell?!" and he ended up saying them out loud. He slid the door closed, hammered the _lock_ button again, then dashed to his room. Unfortunately, he didn't run into another member, and was too much in a panic-induced haze to hit the alarm. What was the word James said was "come here"?! And why couldn't he remember when he needed it most?!

      He skidded across his room, only one half of a corridor down, and tried something. "Rarit!" No response. "Tarir! Rirat! Tirar!" Suddenly, the sword, scabbard included, spun from his closed, which Eric grabbed in midair. Slinging it over his back, he dashed to Sarah's room, mashing the button combination.

      He jumped into the room, unsheathing Murasma as he went in. "Who are you?!" Eric demanded. The vixen was in far too much a panic to respond coherently, but Eric was able to piece together, "It's me…"

      "Quit blabbering and TELL ME WHO YOU ARE?!?" Eric shouted, surprising himself, fear taking hold on his mind as well. He was hoping for one of the other SF members to walk in and help him out with this, when suddenly, James could be heard talking.

      _"Vixy…"_

      "Who?" Eric took another look, this one not blurred. Red vixen, somewhat long hair, went past the shoulders, also a redhead. Eric was beginning to see a pattern, wearing Sarah's clothes with a lump in the left leg that a tail must have been with no where else to go.

      Suddenly, it dawned. James had said Vixy had done something like that as well, both of them had volunteered for an experiment. James had said Vixy had _meant _to take Fara, but like with James, it must have screwed up somewhere. Then the coat of arms with the bow slot… it all made sense! And with James not hearing for awhile from Vixy… Eric's eyes suddenly dawned in realization.

      "Oh… oh OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH…" Eric sheathed Murasma, but left a bit of the blade protruding for conversation. Eric could practically feel his sword melting, if such a sensation was possible. But whatever it was, James was feeling something, along the lines of longing and pain that has receded.

      "Eric… what happened?" Sarah/Vixy said, eyes in fear. "And what will the rest of the people here say if they see me like this?"

      "Probably the same thing as what I am predicting that they will say, but hold on, an armband should have fallen down here somewhere."

      "Just about what I was trying to tell her, but I was just about to break her shield of hysteria." Another identical voice coming from Eric's left. Hung on the wall was the Beamstriker and it's quiver.

      Eric bent and picked up a similar armband to what he was wearing and gave it to Sarah/Vixy, who was starting to calm down slightly. He forcibly slapped it onto Sarah's wrist. "Now, this is going to hurt like crap, but when it's over, you'll be in your own body again. Okay?"

      Sarah nodded and Eric pushed the button. Immediately, Sarah/Vixy cringed, then practically bent into a pretzel as the fur receded, the canine head becoming more and more human, and the lump in the left leg disappeared. It practically seemed like her skin was melting in reverse when the reddish fur disappeared. Thirty seconds later, the transformation was complete, leaving Sarah completely exhausted. She looked into Eric's eyes, fearful.

      "What the hell was that?" Her voice was shaky, like one who's just endured a lot of pain.

      "Don't worry, I had to go through that too." Eric poured out the story of what James had told him.

      "So you're like this too? I don't get this at all, Eric… it just seems like it was so little ago that our lives were normal."

      "You don't prefer super weirdness?"

      "Of course not! I liked it when…" She stopped, not wanting to finish her sentence. Vixy did it for her.

      "You can take the world for granted." Eric nodded in agreement.

      "This is fantastic! See new worlds… okay, I'm not one for running for my life, but still…"

      Sarah took Beamstriker. "So now Fox's mom's spirit is inside here?"

      "Yep. That's what it seems like." The sentence was more or less worded the same through the three people who echoed as reply.

      "And in me…"

      "I know this is a bit much to take, but Sarah, you have to stay calm. Whatever you do, don't tell any of the others."

      "Why?!" Came Sarah's indignant response. "Why don't I have a right?!"

      "I did not go through this just to be restrained from seeing the reason I went through it for!" Vixy said angrily.

      "Because they won't be able to take it!" Eric nearly shouted. He explained his reasons to not tell the rest of the group until the time was right. Vixy calmed down while Sarah saw the reason behind Eric's madness.

      "Please. I know it's going to be hard, but it would be like… like…" Eric stopped at a loss for words.

      "I see now why you aren't already broadcasting this, Eric…" Vixy said.  "I'll wait. I've waited almost fifteen years, a little while longer isn't going to hurt me."

      Sarah still lay there, shaking like a newborn pup with its favorite toy crushed to pieces. "I wish none of this had happened."

      "May I quote one of my favorite movies?" Eric interjected.

      "_No_, I've heard the quote quite often enough, thank you." Sarah quickly replied. The conversation was about to continue ROB's voice blared over the intercom.

      "All aboard, meet in conference room." He droned.

      Eric looked at Sarah, Beamstriker and his sword. "Keep it down, I'll tell them, just… not yet. Trust me on this one." Eric sheathed his sword while Sarah put Beamstriker back in it's hook on the wall. Eric walked back into his room, put Murasma back in the closet and then met up with Sarah again on their way to the conference room.

      Fox, Eclipse and Falco were already there. Within ten minutes, the rest of the SF team and Krystal had shown up with (much to anyone's surprise) Bill and Katt.

      "I thought you weren't going to come along?" Eclipse asked.

      "You'd have to shoot me to keep me down, Venom's uprising and the Huskies aren't just going to stand by." Bill said cockily.

      "Venom better watch out, 'cause Katt's gonna tag along for the ride." Katt declared.

      Eric tried a joke. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Katt. Eric Shroud NEVER refers to himself in the third person, and Eric Shroud only thinks that's kind of creepy." Chuckling and laughter filled the room.

      Soon, the hologram of General Pepper appeared in the center of the room. "Fox and company, we have analyzed the information you have given us and it only points to one thing: The construction of a fleet of ships with unknown blueprints to this sector of space with the power to wipe out all of Lylat. Your job is going to be to prevent this from happening, and find out what is founding this. Last time, I thought we wiped out funding, and this fuel for this… this armada fire can only come from an outside source, possibly even from outside Lylat."

      Fox nodded, then said, "Payment?"

      "Forty-five thousand, ten thousand up front."

      "Hmm." Eric said, contemplating that. He took a sip of water from a jug off to the side and then spit the mouthful out in shock. "Forty-five thousand dollars?!?"

      Falco sighed. "I don't know what currency you have, monkey-boy, but on a system I call LYLAT, we use CREDITS."

      Amidst the laughter, Fox could be heard saying, "We accept."

      "Very well, Fox." Pepper pushed a few buttons on the computer. "The remaining thirty-five thousand will be transferred upon proof of completion. And Fox?"

      "Yeah?"

      "This normally doesn't go along, but I've managed to get approval for extra military force. Venom is up to something, we are sure of that, and they might need some… persuasion… Either way, meet the contingent at Venom. Pepper out."

      The members who knew a lot about the Cornerian Military stared. "This must be serious like hell if they are sending military aid. Something is up that's so huge it's like… uh, like… something really, really huge…" Eric offered lamely.

      "I agree. They must have seen something we didn't in that journal." Eclipse said.

      "Wait a minute… how do you know about that?" Sarah put in.

      "While you were tending Eric, who was out cold, I was checking it out with Krystal."

      "That'd explain it."

      "Fox, buddy, you know I'm going to grab a contingent and come along." Bill said.

      "And you'd have to shoot me to keep me out, tiger." Katt put in.

      "Wow. We're just one big happy family now, huh?" Eric said. Most of the group either stared or glared at him. "Forget I said anything."

      Fox was staring out of the Great Fox's window. "You know what this means. We are going to Venom."

End of Act II


	21. Crash Landing Chapter XXI, Act III

Act III: The Hammer Falls

Chapter I

      Eric beckoned. The rest of the group stared. Eric was only getting slightly impatient, as with all video game characters, they acted as if this was their first run. When all he got were empty gapes, Eric practically exploded.

      "Going to Venom, AGAIN!" Fox chuckled. "And you also realize what this means. They aren't sending you just to check what that 'extra activity' was, you know that, right? If they are sending military firepower, which, being half-Republican, I am much behind, then they already know what's going on. The extra activity on Venom that Pepper wanted you to investigate? I'd bet Corneria's treasury that this is what they were doing, the sudden construction of this war-fleet, and our job is to make stuff explode."

      "I think we've all figured that out, monkey-boy." Falco said with his usual arrogant superiority.

      "Yeah, well, I'm just checking. AND STOP CALLING ME MONKEY-BOY!"

      "Okay, monkey-boy."

      Eric sighed while Fox started telling everyone to get ready. "The Great Fox would be heading for Venom tomorrow at six hundred hours.. Bill, Katt, get what you're going to bring. Falco, get your ArWing ready, Pep, Slip, boot up the Great Fox."

      With not much else left to do, Eric and Sarah went back to their quarters, mainly to wonder how in the galaxy they were going to hide intelligent weapons.

      "Hey, Sarah," Eric said, jogging up to meet her. "Remember back in the good old days when the worst that could happen is abject humiliation?"

      "Uh, Eric, it's only been one month in this world, and judging by the very-little change in time from our jumps, maybe an hour or two? Our parents wouldn't be back from work yet."

      "You're pretty good at skirting my question."

      "No."

      Slumping back into his room, Eric picked up Murasma and unsheathed it. Roughly thirty seconds later, he was shook from his blank gaze by James, who said, "Hello?"

      "Huh? Oh… yeah…"

      "So what's new that wasn't new in the last fifteen minutes or so?"

      "Not much, really. As it turns out, we're going to be going to Venom. The extra activity that Fox was sent to explore seems to be a construction of a giant war fleet, and we have to stop it. Hey – this is off topic, but I was wondering: How did everyone know about what I could and couldn't do before I even got here?"

      _"We had arranged for a universal file on you, as opposed for a dimension-specific one. That way, the other people here wouldn't immediately attack you, thinking you were a Venom ape, as accomplishments of Cornerian liking were in there. And… speaking of Venom…"_ James voice got very silky at the end, like he was about to bring up a dark grudge.

      "Uh, dude, are you getting an ectoplasmic cold or something?" Eric asked.

      "No, but I have a score to settle with Pigma Dengar."

      "Hey, the SW team. I got to make a total ass of them last encounter."

      "You didn't kill them?" James seemed annoyed.

      "Well, they had half of the others hostage. I had to frickin' rescue them. You know, for a group of utter dunces, they sure play a mean ball game."

      "You're telling me?! Pigma betrayed me, left Fox as an orphan and almost killed Peppy!"

      "Personally, I'm surprised that you didn't see that coming. When I met up, they were so stupid, they went to a fly-through movie to see 'Closed for the Season'."

      "Everything to you is just one big joke, isn't it?" James asked acidly.

      "Yep. Like the time they got thrown out of the M&M factory for pitching the W's."

      "Will you shut up?!?"

      "…or the time they tripped over a cordless holo-phone…"

      "Why won't you shut up?!?"

      "Okay, okay, what did you want to say?"

      "I'm not normally one for killing in cold blood, but this must be done. A family grudge, you might say." James said, calming down.

      "Alrighty then. Might as well rest up and maybe get some training in, as I'm gonna need it."

      Figuring he'd have to get some sort of extra combat training (he doubted Soul Caliber and Paintball would be enough) he made his way through the Great Fox's interior until he came to what could only be the shooting range. Several isles of straightaway ending in a target that was moving around the isle they were confined to rather rapidly to increase marksmanship demand. A few other various targets were being used, like that of a person behind a crude shape of what vaguely resembled someone with their hands up to enhance the ability not to hit a hostage.

      On the right side of the room from where Eric stood, there seemed to be sparring sections to practice melee ability. Staves, swords, and wooden sticks were on some of the walls and the floor had padding in addition to the wall.

      Eric walked over to the shooting range and unholstered one of the submachine guns and took aim. One… two… three…

      "Don't screw up!" Eric lurched on the trigger. Three seconds and an empty clip later, Eric looked up. Every single spot on the target except the bull's-eye was ridden with holes.

      Looking back, he saw Katt, who was bent over her knees and shaking uncontrollably. "What in the nine hells was that for?!" He demanded angrily. "So now you're going to annoy me without Jack to use as a scratching post and that you're through with Falco? Don't you have someone else to annoy? Friends? Family? Leon Powalski?"

      Katt continued laughing. "Witty remarks will get you far, hon. Part of-"

      "Wait, wait a minute. I hope you're just calling me 'hon' as a Texas accent side-effect…"

      "What or where is Texas?"

      "Never mind."

      "Anyway, part of the reason I loved Jack; he always had a comeback for everything." Katt said, looking skyward.

      "What, and I don't?"

      "You don't have any good ones."

      "Very reassuring. I'll be sure to care in –" he checked his watch. "- Two millennia."

      "You seem very cold, most of the time. I usually either see you brooding or holed up in your room."

      "I was wondering if anyone was starting to notice. Or care." Eric retorted.

      "See, that's what I mean, tiger. You push people away who might bother to watch your back."

      "Pretty funny joke, Katt."

      "I'm serious. Falco is holding a begrudging debt, Fox already feels partly responsible, and they all think something of you as a hero for your stunt on the Cerberus. How did you know if you exhale through your mouth it holds off vacuum, anyway?"

      "Uh…" In truth, he read it out of a Space sourcebook for a role-playing game, but that was the first time he got to reality-check it. "It's common knowledge among us science brains."

      Katt stated. "Uh-huh," she muttered. "Anyway, I'm going to go make sure my ship is in order." And walked off.

      "Pheh, and she thinks I'm cold. When someone needs soft-drink ice they could chisel it off her shoulder." Eric muttered as he got back to perfecting his aim.

      It turned out to be slightly more difficult than expected. Handheld automatics tend to have accuracy that is worth little more than blanketing a room in spray, that and all previous training had little to no recoil. At the recoil rate of his weapons, it would be like pumping up his biceps just trying to keep the recoil under wraps.

      "Eric?" A high-pitched voice said. Eric jumped. "Dinnertime. And Fox wanted to see you…"

      "Huh?" It was Slippy, who was holding up a watch. 

"It's almost six going by our current time zone and planet."

"Really? Where in the nine hells does the time go?" Eric asked.

"Obviously not here."

"Alright, alright, I'll be right there." Eric said. He took a glance back at the training room (He hadn't even noticed when Fox, Krystal, Eclipse and Bill, who were previously brushing up on skills had left) and muttered something about needing to keep more on top of things. Holstering the guns, he followed Slippy over to the dining hall. Half of the StarFox Fellowship was gone already, the rest munching on what they could find or gearing up for the flight to Venom. He started choking down the scrambled eggs with what tasted like an overlaying flavor of rust and iron and taking one-too-many drinks from the water fountain to dull the copper taste. Halfway through (Eric was suddenly "too full" to eat anymore), Fox came over.

      "Hey, Eric," Fox said as he pulled up a chair.

      "Yeah?" Eric said, torn between eating until he was full and upheaving what he already had.

      "There's something I've been meaning to ask you." Fox asked.

      "Yeah?" Eric replied, somewhat fearful of the question (as he had been conditioned to when confronted with awkward questions from peers with a simian intelligence).

      "How EXACTLY did you have a record here when you come from really, really far off?"

      You have no idea how far off, Eric thought. "I'm not quite sure either," Eric lied. "I was anticipating having to show a resume or something, and when Sarah and I arrived, lo and behold, everything was already in place. I don't think I'm going to know for the life of me."

      "Huh… just wondering, because there was another one of your kind-"

      "Jack Chaykin. I still want to know what the deal is with him."

      "Yeah. Let's just say it seems heroic humans come in twos. Jack pulled a similar feat of life-saving when he was here, and made a friend in Katt."

      "She always seems to be really pissed off whenever the name Jack is mentioned…"

      "Well, to tell you the truth, I think they had a thing going on between them. Falco seemed relieved, as he always has been trying to push Katt away. Personally, I don't know why he was always so bothered. Anyway, Jack said he would be back around eight days from when he left…"

      "And?"

      "That was nine years ago."

      "Wow."

      "Anyway, after that Katt has always seemed strangely detached. She always has been the happy-go-lucky kitten, always has, always will, but there was something. Something we're not seeing. Under normal circumstances, she would have forgotten about it and moved on, but… but she has NEVER let it go. Every time one of us talks about Jack, she bristles. There is something that happened behind closed doors… NOT that, Eric," Fox quickly added after seeing Eric struggle to keep a straight face and failing. "…that did something."

      Eric cracked. Amidst the laughing, Fox said acidly, "I think you need a glass of water."

      "Yes, I think I do," Eric said, snickering as he stood up to get a cup of water. "So, is that all you wanted to talk to me about? Another human that happened to stumble in this neck of the universe?"

      "Not really, it's just…"

      "Just what?"

      Eric was taking a swig when Fox answered. "It's been like this for awhile now, sometimes when I look at you I… I see my father."

      Eric spewed out the water, which was immediately starting to get cleaned up by ROB. "Say what?!" He yelped, a little bit more shrill than he intended to.

      "Whoa, someone's a little high-strung." Fox said, stifling a laugh as Eric took several deep breaths. "Not really a physical appearance, but sometimes the way you walk, your joking personality… I swear to god, you have so many similarities with my father that it's almost like you're his next incarnation."

      "I don't want to say 'that's ridiculous,' but....... but I can't figure out a good way to finish that sentence." Suddenly, this conversation turned about as awkward as was humanely possible.

      "I'm just saying. And then Sarah has many qualities that my mom showed. Somewhat overprotective, comes through in a pinch…"

      "I can agree with that." Eric suddenly had an insane desire to get out of that room as quickly as possible.

      "Ah, I'm just looking too far into it." I highly doubt that, Eric thought nervously.

      "I'll let you go, I just wanted to ask you those questions."

      "O-okay…" Eric stuttered. Fox either didn't hear or wasn't paying attention, as he didn't inquire on the slip of the tongue stammer.

      In the few hours before midnight, Eric went back into the training room to brush up on the art of swordsmanship. Besides from one time where he stabbed himself in the foot, he got off quite well, plus an understanding that was earned, not acquired in the midst of relative panic. Afterwards, he walked back into his room, saw Murasma and remembered the conversation he had with Fox… He pulled out the blade a half-inch.

      _"Yeah?"_ James asked in the ectoplasmic voice that was impossible to decipher direction.

      _"I didn't need to tell Fox, he acts like he can already guess." _Eric said, somewhat miserably.

      _"How?"_ Then, _"And why are you acting like that's a bad thing?"_

      "I never said that." Eric said, trying to worm his way out of explaining why he wasn't in a huge hurry to let the cat out of the bag.

      _"You implied it."_

      Eric sighed inwardly, then told him what Fox said.

      _"Well, there's another mistake I made in getting you instead of Fox. Family similarity."_

      Eric felt like exploding with, "Are you insane?!?" but caught himself. What he said instead was, "I'll tell Fox, I'll just have to come up with a good method of presentation." Yeah, that would blow over perfectly…

      _"......Riiight... I don't see what's so hard about explaining something which ISN'T EXACTLY SUPPOSED TO BE A SECRET."_ Ugh, he's still angry at me, Eric thought.

      "Look, James… I'm sorry, it's just…"

      _"This is an awkward situation, isn't it?"_ James said in words what he was feeling.

      "Exactly."

      _"Remember your promise. What you have promised, you must perform."_

      "That sounds like a movie quote. In fact, I heard it in-"

      _"PROMISE me."_

      "Look, we've been over this before."

      It was impossible for a hunk of mineral to glare, but something about the shade of blue the fire was and the way it started to dance suggested something of the mindset to Eric.

      "Fine, I promise," he said, inside feeling about as put together as a jigsaw puzzle last used by your younger sibling, or half the pieces lost.

      _"Thanks."_

      "Yeah, anytime…" Eric sheathed Murasma before James could keep talking, Eric was getting tired of the subject.

      Eric was also starting to get slightly homesick. He felt like he was here with a purpose, but he was starting to get the urge to pull his sunglasses off due to something more than personal health interest. He reached for them, and then remembered. He still had a job here, and it would throw off the time (which Eric thought had a completely random pattern from so far in his experience). And all the tales he had heard of anything involving heroes, when the chips were down they had eleventeen bazillion chances to turn back, but didn't. Bah! The feeling of homesickness vanished when he looked at it that way.

      It was around eleven, the ship was set for just outside Venomian airspace and Eric was checking on how things were out of boredom. Man, the place was quiet as a tomb, and nowhere near as many things to jump out at you or claw at your feet. Slight temperature change… wait a minute, Eric thought.

      He had walked past a previously unused bedroom. Katt and Bill had said they were tagging along, but they both had somewhere else to sleep, or so he had thought. He ever-so-quietly jimmied the door open. After ten seconds of failure, he tried the knob. Surprisingly, it was unlocked.

      "Huh, then it can't be that bad, whoever is inside didn't even bother to check for security…" Eric muttered. It lessened the tension slightly knowing it was probably Star Wolf.

      Hand on a gun he walked in… and was greeted with perhaps the most bizarre sight he had ever seen. More bizarre than the time he put several dozen gallons of fertilizer on a bunch of vines coming from his grandpa's vineyard, only to find out they had been treated with some government chemical and the vines were starting to groping at everything around them like a person possessed? Oh yeah, more bizarre than that.

      On the bed, huddled up against the far wall, was Katt. Her back was arched backward, she seemed to be groping an invisible, intangible shape right in front of her and she kept making an odd twist with her pelvis… Another thing Eric noticed. It reeked with a thick, musky odor to the point Eric had to get a hold of himself to keep from retching. There were a ton of blankets, but judging by what Eric could see of Katt's legs and back, she was sleeping in the fur. Also, Eric could almost hear the faint whisper of, "Jack…"

      Katt started slowing down while Eric leaned lazily on the wall. "So… Katt. I didn't know you were into aromatherapy."

      Furry hearing tends to be much better than human hearing; Katt heard. Springing out of bed, she looked very heavily disheveled. Her hair was a mess of tangled wire and her fur smelled like it needed a good wash. She clung to the blankets as if her life depended on it, using them how a person usually uses a towel when coming out of the shower to hide the unmentionables.

      "Uh…" Eric checked his watch: 11:20. "I'd say 'good-morning,' but it's not time yet."

      "What are you doing in here?" Her tone was between angry and tired.

      "Uh… uh… checking on things."

      "IT'S ELEVEN-TWENTY P.M! When do you get to sleep?!"

      "Depends. Weekend or school night?"

      "AUGH! You're impossible!" Katt shoved him out and closed the door, this time being careful to lock it.

      "Feh. Stupid touchy people…" Eric grumbled as he walked off.

      It took him awhile to admit it, though, but Katt was right. He should be getting some sleep or he'd never make it if diplomacy and the search warrant failed. He swallowed his fear and pushed the button again for changing into James, so that he'd be able to see after his contacts were out and so he wouldn't need the sunglasses.

      For some odd reason, it didn't hurt nearly as much this time. Sure, his skin felt like it was melting, but he barely felt anything else. It was also over faster, he shook the ache off much faster and he was ready to go.

      "Hey, that wasn't as bad…" Eric muttered under his breath, once again startled by the change in voice. He'd have to be up early if he didn't want to be caught by someone, so he set his alarm clock extra early.

      Suddenly, his eyes started itching like someone had dunked them in salt. Gingerly prying the contact lenses out of his canine eyes, he took off the sunglasses again and was able to see the world at it's normal gamma radiation.

      Making sure that he was completely covered by the bed sheets, he had to admit, it was comfortable. More comfortable than before, anyway.    It was warmer than the frigid sheets he had to endure previously, and then, after being nearly blind for most of his life taking his contacts out and going into twenty/twenty vision was like walking around all his life with a cotton sheet over his eyes, and then suddenly he took them off and voila! New life!

      Eric buried his vulpine face in the covers for the dawn to come. For some reason, he felt an ominous sense of foreboding coming, but grit his newfound fangs and ignored it. After all, why waste time about odd feelings about the future when you should be concerned about the present? Eric finally closed his eyes in semi-complete slumber.

      Eric was having such a nifty dream… He was walking out of the Great Fox as Pepper was there, practically handing them each of them a medal as they walked off of the ship. It was in the city setting of Corneria, judging from looking over Pepper's shoulder. Pepper had a knighting sabre. Alright, recognition for nifty deeds! Sarah knelt in front of Eric and before Pepper. "Lady Termingham," Pepper could be heard saying. Igh, Eric thought, that meshed so horribly it was hardly imaginable. Next it was Eric's turn, but when Pepper opened his mouth, all that could be heard was screeching on par with a Wail of the Banshee. SCREET, SCREET, SCREET… Augh! It was all Eric could do to stick his fingers in his ears. Enough with the loud screechy noises! Eric tried to shout, but his voice was lost on him. He could almost feel himself slipping into a gaping hole where there was nothing but the cursed SCREET, SCREET, SCREET… Turn it off… Eric was unable to do anything but mouth as he slowly became deaf to the buzzing, standing there shuddering.

      SCREET, SCREET, SCREET…

      WHAM!

      It took Eric a few seconds to figure out what had happened. Amidst the buzzing which was driving him insane, he brought his fist over in an attempt to **do** something. A small prickly feeling, then a warm sticky feeling, came over his hand. Looking up, what was left of his alarm clock was sticking into his hand. Throughout the back of his mind, he could swear he could hear James laughing…

      _"Genius point!"_

      "Shut up," Eric muttered to himself in James' deeper voice. It was going to take awhile before he could get over that.

      The feeling of several pointy shards of plastic started to set in. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, _oww_…" Eric groaned. From some dark, warped corner of his mind, he could still hear James snickering. Gingerly, one by one he pulled the plastic shards from his hand.

      The ache that the sunglasses had left was still there, and with a vengeance. It did feel better, so after spending some time in the pitch blackness (which, for some reason with fox senses, didn't seem so pitch) massaging the ache out, he went over to the armband, contact lenses and sunglasses he put for easy reference.

      First thing that went in were the contact lenses. It was exceedingly hard, considering in his new form, he couldn't see in them. Trying to blink his way through a haze, he put the sunglasses on and pushed the button again.

      Either his body and mind were getting used to it, or the pain kept dramatically decreasing. All he felt was a medium pins-and-needles sensation across his body and a weird suction feeling as the tail _shlooped_ back up his spine, that was about it.

      Unfortunately, shapeshifting in contact lenses is one of the most uncomfortable, if not painful, experiences one can hope to go through if the eye structure is different than you're old form, which Eric quickly found out. The contacts immediately clenched onto the changing eyeballs, causing his eyes to water enough to drown Los Angeles. Eric felt like he had taken several pokers and poked himself in the eye with them until the transformation was complete, and then he had to gingerly place the contact lenses back where they're supposed to be through the sunglasses.

      "Whoo!" Eric gasped. "When I go back to Earth, I'm getting laser eye surgery!" He swallowed off the aching feeling and wiped the tears from his eyes.

      Slinging Murasma back over his shoulder, he got his guns holstered underneath the cloak, he set off towards the dining quarters.

      Only Slippy and Fox were there; the rest were out cold.

      "Whoa, Eric," Slippy squeaked. "You seem decked out."

      "Always come prepared. I made that up, yah."

      "…Right." Slippy said. "You know, we don't hit Venom for another three hours…"

      Somehow, a combination of what James would have said and what Eric would have said got rolled into one sentence. "Three hours?!? But I'm mad NOW!"

      Fox cocked an eyebrow. "Wow, Eric. I didn't really think you the soldier type."

      "Not really soldier, thrill-seeker. This is the best time I have had since… er… well… ever. Not to mention the coolest. My life before I came here must have rated in excitement just above taxpaying." Not entirely true, but it was his perspective.

      Fox chuckled. "You really prefer it here, don't you?" Slippy said.

      "You better believe it." Eric said, grinning.

      "Heh, try going off and doing life-or-death things on a yearly basis, or actually seeing someone blown away rather than exploding a hunk of metal. That'll give you a different perspective on things." Fox said, chuckling.

      "I just might, Fox… I just might…"

      "That wasn't a suggestion."

      "Just might…"

      Fox rolled his eyes as Falco and Eclipse walked in. "Falco, you're up early." It showed. Falco looked more zombie-like than avian. Eclipse, however, looked like she merely needed a shower as a static-electricity effect had her hair and fur on end.

      "G'mornin' t'you too, Fox." Falco grumbled.

      "When do we meet up with the Cornerian strike force, Fox?" Eclipse said.

      "Three hours." Fox answered.

      Eclipse took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm gonna go take a shower…" Eric noted that Eclipse looked slightly sick.

      "Fox…" Eric started, noting Eclipse's facial expression. "What's with her?"

      "Grund cobat sucks, kid…" Falco yawned, answering for Fox.

      "That pretty much sums it up, it ain't going to be pretty. It isn't really easy seeing a guy have half his face open up or his entrails spilling out of them, and if you're going on the ground like Eclipse is, there's going to be a lot of that."

      Eric stared, turning slightly green in the face. "Oh… your… god… This is like the Soldier of Fortune games, isn't it?"

      "What's that?"

      "Nevermind." Eric added hastily. Falco rolled his eyes.

      "Whatever, I'm going to get a cup of coffee."

      As Falco walked over to the coffee machine, Eric turned around. "I thought he didn't like coffee."

      "He doesn't, but he needs the caffeine." Slippy replied.

      "Ah."

      Eric sat down to a breakfast, and didn't really have much to gripe about seeing as his taste buds were nearly nullified by the horrific visions that kept becoming conjured in his head. It was like a futuristic version of _Saving Private Ryan_, only with furries. His mind suddenly wandered back to the weird dream he had right before this all began… yeah. It was something like that.

      He had remembered documentaries on what he would always refer to as, "wars and stuff." Suddenly, he felt like dropping the, "and stuff." It suddenly didn't seem like such laughing material. Between _Saving Private Ryan, _the interviews with World War II vets and the War episode of Conker's Bad Fur Day, the three hours seemed to stretch into a time warp from the inevitable violence that would happen.

      Eric peeked out of one of the windows on the Great Fox's bridge. He hadn't noticed just how vast it seemed until he was looking out at it. He could make out the sun of the system, a glowing ball of liquid-hot magma called Solar. What looked like a floating orange dust ball was near a green swirly planet; Titania. And then, despite Eric's desire not to, he gaze kept returning to the green planet with the hazy, Venus-like atmosphere…

      "Venom."

      It never had really seemed that imposing, but at the same token, he never was really looking at it in person. Funny… the guys at Rare didn't get even close enough to its proper size… Eric almost laughed at what he was thinking at a time like this.

      "Hey, Fox," Slippy's voice could be heard talking to someone Eric gave himself three guesses to guess who, and the first two didn't count. "The Cornerian Strike team is almost here."

      "Okay, Slip." Fox said. "Wait until they get here. If they have some of the ships that we managed to get an idea of, we may need the extra firepower. Besides, Venom's been trying to get another army up since we trashed them LAST time at Dinosaur Planet."

      "Fox, out of curiosity…" Eric started. "Has Venom EVER quit? I mean, you'd think that after trashing them, what, eleventeen bazillion times, that they'd eventually get the hint and back off, but nooooooo. They just have to keep rushing up at you like a Psygnosis lemming, a glutton for punishment. I just can't identify with that kind of work ethic."

      "What's a Psygnosis lemming?"

      "Never mind."

      "Get the rest of the group ready," Fox commanded.

      "Gotcha, Fox." Slippy said, and scurried off.

      Eric went down to the Great Fox's armory and searched around. He already had a sidearm… there wasn't really that much there. Falco, Bill and Katt had already gotten there and cleaned it out. There was a single plasma shotgun there, but Eric wasn't quite sure how he would be firing it off repeatedly with shrapnel literally creating a wall of blades. And… something was missing… Eric was about to turn and ask someone when Fox walked in the door.

      "Hey, Fox… where's the armor?"

      "Hmm? You mean, like Reflec?"

      "Yeah. I can't find any."

      "Uh…" Fox seemed to be hiding perhaps the largest grin. "Did you check through that rotating door?"

      "Uh… no…" Fox started laughing. Eric walked over and slammed his fist into the button out of frustration. It wasn't the first time he had completely overlooked the blatantly obvious. Eric could hear James laughing again…

      "Look, just because I'm not a super-genius, stay off my case."

      "What?" Fox asked. Damn! Eric thought. He heard!

      "Nothing, I'm talking to myself again." Eric bluffed.

      "Again?"

      "Something like that. When I was in the fourth grade, I was made fun of so badly I developed a schizophrenic companion-" (which wasn't entirely untrue, with James in his mind's eye) "-and contemplated suicide. I haven't exactly had the best social life, which is why I'm surprised how I was so openly accepted when you guys are at war with the Venomian monkeys."

      Fox's eyes popped at the mention of the suicide thoughts. "Uh… I'm glad you didn't, you've done a good job of watching our backs."

      "I guess it's an unused gift. No one ever looked out for me, save my parents, and their almost always working. Let me tell you: Life where I come from is pretty boring."

      "So you never had much practice at looking out for people, but it turns out you're good at it?"

      "Something like that."

      "Anyway, we're almost there. Get some Reflec and that shotgun. Good luck. You're gonna need it."

      "Thanks for the comfort."

      The Cornerian Strike Force met up with them. "Okay, we've tried some diplomacy, and despite our permit for searching, they threatened our diplomat at gunpoint. Pepper just finished legalizing military force." Tracy told them grimly. He arranged for the troops and those who work better on the ground into dropships. Fox, Falco, Bill and Katt were in ships, while the rest of the SFF and the troops were in dropships. Eric and Sarah were in the same ship with three other guards.

      "So... how about that local sports team?" Eric said, clutching his plasma shotgun.

      One of the soldiers laughed in spite of his tenseness. "You ain't half-bad for a primate. What's your name?"

      "Yeah, I know, I'm bad all the way through!" More nervous laughter.

      "His name's Eric. Or as I am going to start referring to him as, Mr. Gets-Hurt-All-The-Time. He's been hospitalized almost, what, three, four times now this month?" Sarah said, poking fun at him.

      "I wouldn't put it past any of us not to make it back," The one Eric was joking to said grimly. "Our diplomat didn't see much, but he noticed several tanks and ships in the background of the comlink and a gray wolf with a patch over one eye."

      Sarah was staring into space. "Wolf O'Donnell. Something really, really bad is going to happen here. I just know it."

      Venom was now looming through the window. Eric was holding his plasma shotgun, fingering his sidearms and shifting his weight so Murasma rested better on his back. Sarah just got a combat knife and a pistol; she already had a hardy distance weapon. The other troops had assault rifles.

      "Okay, the doors are going to open as soon as we get into Venom airspace. The Star Fox team and Bill Grey and some of his huskies will keep any turrets off of us if we get fired upon. We don't want that, obviously. We need to get a look at what they have, and Venom is going to open fire as soon as we're close enough."

      "Hey, hey, dude, we already know what we're doing." Eric snapped.

      "Cool it, Eric," Sarah said. "The grown-ups are talking." Eric never has really let it go that Sarah is almost a year and a half older than him, and thus able to drive. It came in handy though.

      Suddenly, space lit up. Lasers where flying through the window behind them, to and fro as a blast rocked the ship. "Crap!" Was the word that was more or less given throughout the craft.  "Pilot, how badly are we hit?" One of the other soldiers demanded.

      "Not badly at all. The shields absorbed the impact. We got lucky we had the engine tuned before coming here," He added thankfully.

      The Star Fox Team and the huskies, and the airborne team were holding Venom off well. Almost too well.

      "Is this all they can conjure?" Sarah asked herself.

      "I don't know. They usually pull out all of the stops around now. And, at the very least, we aren't even on the ground yet." Eric encouraged. They just were getting through the atmosphere and could start landing. "What could possibly happen?"

      Eric would forever be telling anyone that would care to listen, "Don't EVER say, 'what could possibly happen', or your god will SMITE thee!" A cannonball bomb slammed the side of the ship. A gaping hole could be seen as one of the guards fell out to his death.

      "Aaaaaaaaah!" Eric and Sarah screamed consecutively. Out of instinct, they drew their weapons.

      They spiraled through the Venom airspace, utterly exposed with death a mere heartbeat away.

      "Never ask what could happen…"


	22. Venom Surface Chapter XXII

Chapter II

      Eric blinked, the noisy hell that only previously came from a classroom full of total idiots enveloping him. Opening his eyes, he felt a tug in sunglass precognition pulling him. Eric hastily obliged and not a moment to soon. Total chaos was slamming him as he dodged out of the way of a grenade, only a foot away. His side throbbed harder than it did when he was hit with a piece of lead pipe and nothing around him seemed to make any coherent sense. A crimson spear of death pierce where his head was only moments before as a scaly Sharpclaw dinosaur hit the dirt right next to him. Looking back, thanking James, he saw the sight of the Sharpclaw and let out a technicolor yawn.

      Half of the Sharpclaw's head was split open, the gray mass jiggling out of the hole made by some Cornerian's gun. Greenish blood seeped toward him as the brain finished oozing like thick toothpaste from the splattered-cantaloupe head.

      Eric was immediately on his feet. Plasma shrapnel was exploding all around him, but his first priority was getting away from that mangled corpse.

      A pain not unlike getting hit in the back with a spiky pool cue hit Eric from behind. Spinning around, a Sharpclaw decided on the pink mass of flesh would be an easier target than someone with a gun. Brandishing its mace, which was dripping with Eric's blood, he raised his shield as he charged for the kill.

      Eric's hand flew for the handle of Murasma, which was starting to feel quite comfortable. The sense of security immediately faded when he realized it was gone! The sword must have slipped out in the crash landing.

      Eric went for the guns he had "borrowed" from the Cerberus and Fox. The shotgun was broken, which explained the pain in Eric's side. One submachine gun was smashed to bits and the other one was missing. He looked up and was barely able to sidestep the club aimed for his head.

      Eric was a teen of opportunity, so as the Sharpclaw was off balance he kneed it in the back. It merely fazed the creature, and due to the scales Eric felt that he hurt his knee more than he actually hurt the Sharpclaw.

      Eric ran; he didn't stand a chance unarmed. "Hey, kid, where's your weapon?!" A voice called out. It was one of the Cornerian soldiers. Eric had no time to respond, he tripped over a rock and rolled, dodging a grenade.

      The soldier had taken a mighty blast to the stomach from the incendiary plasma. In his last moments conscious, he popped the Venom wolf in the noggin and passed out.

      Eric lunged for the limp body of the trooper. Feeling for a pulse, he found one but it was hardly beating. He wouldn't make it, and Eric couldn't carry him out of there. He took the blaster, feelings mixed between rage and sorrow mixing. 

      "Eric!" A female voice called.

      "Huh?!" Eric called into the melee. "Who's there?" He leapt for the source of the sound and practically froze.

      A huge, scaly lizard stood, cornering Sarah behind a rock. Three or four arrows were stuck in its chest, burns around each.

      "Kxaj kamo, General Scales nacc DEK ro jkeffot!" This time, General Scales will NOT be stopped! Eric paused for a split second to wonder how he understood that without a translator.

      Sarah nocked another arrow. She let it off with a literal bang just as the giant lizard-General Scales-slashed Sarah across the chest. In the same instant, he fell backward by the force of the Exploding Arrow.

      "FOR THE FALLEN!" Eric bellowed, grabbing the barrel of the pistol from the fallen soldier and ramming two fingers on the trigger. Lasers flew out like the judges of the nine hells were after them, thanks to the low recoil and the lack of a need for machinery to reset after each shot.

      The pistol by itself would have been too weak to get past the General's armor, but the speed Eric fired managed to poke a hole in the scales. Sarah had not one, not two, but four ("Whoa…") arrows ready in a spread and knocked Scales back again by the combined momentum of the multiple projectiles.

      Eric aimed upwards at Scales head, hoping to stop him now before he could aid Venom. The gun clicked. Eric stared at the empty magazine. "Dammit!" Sarah felt for more arrows and the quiver was empty.

      Scales charged hell-bent at the duo. Gaping at his now-useless gun – Why didn't he get more ammo! Eric chucked the gun at Scales' forehead and watched as it helplessly bounced off.

      "Eric, back up!" Sarah cried out. She leapt forward in Scales way. Eric almost thought he saw Scales bisect Sarah from all the blood that suddenly was over the floor, covering Sarah.

      "No… no, no NO!" Eric cried out, lunging for Scales. He'd rip the General apart with his bare hands… No one back home understood him. Suddenly, Eric halted short at a more-than-welcome sight.

      Scales hadn't cleaved through Sarah, it was practically the exact opposite. Sarah had spun around with the dracocite blades on the bow giving Scales two nearly identical, incredibly deep gashes in both of Scales' sides. While Sarah was in close combat, she pulled out one of the arrows and nocked it. The General rolled to the side with a speed that would be unexpected from one of his size and fired a small disc over to the horizon. Sarah implanted the arrow into Scales' back as Scales suddenly disappeared in a green glow!

      "What the…" Sarah gasped. She had taken a sword swing besides the claw she took when Eric ran in; Eric noticed. She was clutching her shoulder, which was swollen; a Sharpclaw must have bashed her there. She was definitely in worse shape than Eric. 

      "What the heck?!" Eric burst out.

      "You have any idea what he did?" Sarah asked.

      "I think so…" replied Eric.

      "What do you think it is?"

      "Some kind of handheld teleportation device… I think I recognize the model from some other world, but-" Plasma shrapnel created a crater not twenty feet from where they stood, flinging them across the ground. They leapt for a rock to use as cover while they yelled over the stinging sounds of furry dying and ship becoming rubble.

      "But it's not in this world! Andross can't be behind all of this…" 

      "How do you know Andross is behind this?! He's dead!" Sarah shouted over the noise over the rock.

      "I wouldn't put it past him to come back. Just like he always does, think about it, Sarah." Eric hollered back.

      "That doesn't explain why you think someone else isn't behind this!" Sarah yelled, trying to be heard.

      "When I was on the Outer Plane before James was fired into me, he told me that whenever a world is created in fiction, a new dimension is created. That type of teleportation device is from another dimension and no one in the Star Fox world has the ability to traverse dimensions."

      The rock they were hiding behind suddenly exploded. A rock was launched into Eric, knocking him back and Sarah was flung by the impact.

      "We'll talk later!" Eric shouted as Sarah stooped to gather an arrow that had fallen out of the quiver.

      "I thought you were out!" Eric hollered.

      "Look," She aimed the quiver's opening to Eric. Small, red particles of light were being created and coming closer together in a thin rod shape. "It regenerates arrows. It'll take awhile. Now come on!" came Vixy's voice.

      "Did you have dreams about a situation a lot like this before this happened?"

      "Not this situation, but that a new friend would come into my life… why?" Sarah had similar precognitive dreams that must have also been a side effect of being chosen by their weapons. Why hadn't she told him?

      Several Venom soldiers found them as targets and lunged. Two in front, one behind, one on the left. "Come on!" Sarah yelled, grabbing Eric's hand and running to the right.

      "I CAN WALK, YOU KNOW!" Eric bellowed. A laser beam hit Sarah in the leg and she let go of Eric as she cried out in pain.  Another hit Eric in the wrist, severing the vein and felling him to his knees. "Great… jumpin' paladins of Tyr… I'm done for…" The sudden loss of blood hit Eric harder than he thought it would normally have been possible. He thought he saw an ArWing fly across and mow down the guards as he stumbled to his knees, feeling light headed and covered in the sticky crimson liquid as it flowed down to his fingertips and stained his jeans. He could feel his blood pumping through his arm as he tried to stop it with his other hand…

      "KRYSTAL!!!!" was the last thing he heard before blacking out.

      Falco careened over the field, mowing down the four soldiers who had taken to smashing upon Eric and Sarah and letting them eat laser with a vengeance. He saw Sarah tearing off some of her shirt and wrapping the cloth around Eric's wrist… He had seen the laser strike Eric, but Falco had hoped it wasn't anything very serious… he had grown fond of the kid. He was fun to tease.

      He U-turned and engaged the VTOL function, landing close to Eric and Sarah. He prayed it was not too late…

      "KRYSTAL!!!!" Sarah's call for the uber-medic hit an octave usually reserved for calling dogs. She took one of her arrows and cut off a strip of cloth from her shirt, then tied a knot around Eric's mortal wound to slow down the bleeding, but it was too deep for mundane methods. She was safe for the moment; she had her head down behind a mound of dirt, preventing an astray laser from finding her and an ArWing had taken care of the ground troops that had shot her and Eric only moments prior.

      She felt for Eric's pulse on his neck. She found one, but it was rapidly slowing down. He would die an incredibly premature death unless the wound was closed within the next few minutes!

      The ArWing that had mowed down the soldiers landed. Sarah expected Fox to jump out, but instead it was Falco. A semi-impression of disbelief flickered across Sarah's eyes… she thought Falco didn't give a damn…

      "I said, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?!" Falco yelled, breaking Sarah's thought process.

      "Use the communicator to call Krystal. Or a miscellaneous medic. ANYONE!" Sarah cried out.

      Falco flipped open his arm band. "Krystal? Come on, pick up…"

      A sound of static, then Krystal's accented voice came through. "What is it?"

      "Where are you? We need you here, pronto!"

      "I'm right here!" The same voice, only behind them and not as loud.

      "There you are! Come on, you have to cast something to heal Eric!"

      Krystal made a dash for Eric's limp form while Falco called for the Great Fox to provide some cover. "Get over here, man down, man down!"

      Krystal started muttering an incantation. "Veetah, mortis, corium!" The wound sealed slightly; Eric was going to stabalize.

      The Great Fox flew out of the sky amidst a band of starships firing upon Venom's own gunships. Falco opened the door hastily and half dragged, half threw Eric onto a chair. "Krystal, come on, he's still bleeding!" Falco cried out. Krystal was already there, chanting. The wound closed more and was glowing blue as an aftereffect of the spell. An explosion rocked the ship as Peppy and Slippy ran in.

      "What the hell happened?!?" Peppy yelled.

      "Eric got hurt, keep the ships weapons on!"

      "Rob's got that, but he'll need help. Not since the second Lylat war have we been up against odds like this, and unlike the second Lylat war, we have backup!" Slippy squeaked.

      "Hurry up, Krystal!" Falco barked. Slippy was heading back for the Great Fox's weapon systems, but the rest of the group stared.

      "Every man counts," Falco stuttered. Dammit, why'd he lose it?

      Peppy ran to help Slippy out as Krystal finished stitching Eric's wrist wound. Eric began to stir.

      "Nngh…" Eric groaned. He looked up and saw Sarah, Falco and Krystal huddled over him anxiously. "Ho, man…" Eric gasped. "I thought I was toast!"

      "You nearly were. Come on, man, there's still a battle to fight." Falco said. He turned to Krystal. "Back us up; you may be needed. The others are in the skies?"

      "Yeah," Sarah interjected. "I hope they're faring better than we are."

      "Why is my wrist glowing blue?" Eric cut in.

      "It's a side effect of the spell to increase your blood reproduction rate. You lost a lot of blood from that laser blast to your wrist, Eric, you're lucky your hand wasn't severed." Ouch, Eric thought.

      Falco, Eric, Sarah and Krystal leapt out of the side of the Great Fox with orders for Slippy and Peppy to continue concentrating on the big targets in the air. Peppy handed Eric his blaster and five clips so that at the very least he wouldn't be unarmed. Roughly seven arrows were in the quiver of the Beamstriker with an eighth on its way while Falco was dashing for his ArWing.

      Eric was running as fast as he could, but the injury ached with a huge scar on the wrist. It was like living the dream that hinted that this would all happen… On the horizon, a disembodied head with two hands floating next to what looked like Scales was surveying the carnage, away from this massive melee.

      Wait a minute… Eric thought. Similarities were abound in this living nightmare, but if memory serves, and it usually doesn't… this is the part where a ship crashes into me!

      As if on cue, a flash of black and white cloaked his vision as a ship above got hit by a laser from a ship out of view. It careened from its low point in the sky and zoomed straight at him!

      Eric, and Sarah who was standing right next to him and got the vision through her shades as well, leapt as hard as they could directly out of the way. In the leap, Eric took a low powered laser beam to his side and Sarah could feel the ship hit her legs. Eric turned around to see who was in the ship… definitely ArWing, he feared the worst. Sarah limped back to the ship, her legs numb from the impact. As they neared the ship, the windshield shot outward, kicked by the guy inside. Fox limped out.

      "Cripes, man, you are waaaaaay too lucky for your own good," Eric said, relieved, then stopped. Fox had numerous burns on his face and chest and his clothes were in tatters. Several cuts lined his face, including one over his eye that didn't cut the gooey organ itself that chillingly reminded Sarah of Wolf O' Donnell. Krystal leapt forward with a healing charm, looking spent.

      Krystal managed to heal Fox slightly, then collapsed from exhaustion. "Krystal, you okay?" Sarah asked. Krystal was barely able to stammer out, "Spells take a lot out of me," then lay against the ship, panting. A small comical image of a regular dog doing the same thing flashed across Eric's mind; the irony of the situation forced him to withhold a giggle.

      "I'll be fine in a few minutes, don't worry, okay?" Krystal said, breathing heavily. Fox got out, feeling better from Krystal's charm.

      "We have to get to Venom's command center! If we can cut down the leaders behind this, we can end this instantly!"

      Sarah was looking at the horizon and noticed a large, ominous black building just peeking over, with what looked like a black mist coming out of it. From this distance, that could be a swarm of insects or dozens of ships. "Fox, that it?" She asked.

      Fox pulled out his armband that looked shockingly like Eric's, pushed a button and a blue holographic display of an incredibly similar ominous building popped up in the communicator projecter. Lining the image up, they just weren't similar; they were identical. "That's it. We have to get there somehow! My ship is totaled and the Great Fox needs to back up the ground forces!"

      Four wolves on two motorcycles, one driving one shooting, drove around them firing an automatic blaster rifle at various foot soldiers. They didn't seem to be true motorcycles; they had regular wheels. "I've got an idea!" It sounded like a repeating record, both Eric and Sarah were struck by the same stroke of genius at the same time. Drive a heavy stick through the spokes of the front wheel…

      "Krystal, heave your staff through the front wheel!" Eric yelled. Sarah took out an arrow and expended some energy from Beamstriker to make the arrow almost twice its previous size.

      "I can't throw that far!" Krystal complained.

      "Argh… wait! I can throw Murasma… Oh wait…" Eric started, then stopped, deflated. "Where the hell is that sword!"

      "YOU LOST IT?!" Sarah shrieked. Eric got the feeling that was Vixy speaking through her as not to alarm Fox or Krystal.

      "Um… no… just hurry up and trip those cycles!" Eric yelled. Sarah aimed, fired at the tire and missed.

      "Ugh, you guys take the hard way, don't you?!" Fox yelled. He raised his blaster, and with four sharp clicks of the trigger felled each of the wolves. The rest of the group stared.

      "Uh…"

      "Dude…"

      "Fox?"

      "I thought your specialty was ground…"

      "Dude…"

      "That was impressive!"

      "Hey, you have to be well-rounded. I've been on the ground before; I've practiced my aim. I just don't like fighting on the ground as much, because it's hard, even for an experienced veteran of war to see the mutilated face of the person you just downed." Eric was suddenly struck with the image of the Sharpclaw who's head was splattered open like a cantaloupe someone took a sledgehammer to.

      "Anyway," Fox continued, breaking Eric's thoughts. "Now we have two bikes."

      "Transportation problem solved!" Sarah said hopefully.

      "Yeah. So, who's driving, who's shooting?" Fox asked. Both of the younger companions gazed at the furries.

      "Uh, you guys are the certified drivers…"

      Fox nodded while Krystal rolled her eyes. Diving under the various lasers (Eric was particularly keen not to get hit in the wrist again) and they rolled to the motorcycles. Krystal and Fox got in the drivers seats while Eric and Sarah looked for weapons.

      "Hey, Eric, isn't this one of those submachine guns you got?"

      Eric looked over. "Yeah. I think I'll go for the laser assault rifle though."

      Sarah nodded. "I feel really, really comfortable with this, I think I'll hold onto it." Then, in Eric's own mind – _"How can you have lost that sword!"_ Vixy must have been communicating telepathically.

      _Yeah, yeah, keep your ectoplasmic hat on,_ Eric thought. He hoisted the newfound gun while Sarah looked at the near-empty quiver. "On second thought, I'll take that gun," Sarah said. She took the submachine gun while Fox and Krystal revved up the engines, Eric and Sarah on the back. The took off with the motion from the wheels spattering a trail of dirt and dust behind them when Eric saw a glint of…

      "Murasma?! Fox, turn over to that rock over there! I think I saw my sword!"

      "Uh, okay…" Fox steered the motorcycle he and Eric were on over to the rock as Eric let out an outstretched hand. It quickly became apparent that the dust wasn't causing an airborne hallucination.

      Come on, come on… Eric thought. He reached out for the curved handle of his blade…

      And missed.

      "DAMMIT!" He called out. Fox's exclamation could be heard shortly thereafter.

      "I'm turning around!" Fox said over the noise of the engine.

      "No! Not yet! This is stupid… TIRAR!" Eric called, his hand turned over his shoulder.

      A "Snikt" sound could be heard as Murasma uprooted itself from it's sturdy place in the rock that it was thrown to in the crash, and a _whooshing_ sound as it flew through the air into Eric's hand. Eric quickly sunk the sword into the scabbard as Fox put petal to metal, Krystal following likewise.

      _"We're going to end this, aren't we, James?" _Eric thought. It felt like a reunion with a precious possession, even though it was for at most a half hour, an hour, but it still felt like years.

      _"I hope so, Eric. I hope so."_

      Eric, Krystal, Sarah and Fox sped away from the primary heat of the battlefield, but there were still many mini-battles, and the path was littered with corpses. Eric hoisted the assault rifle, while Sarah had the submachine gun in aimed, firing at heavy foot soldiers who dared to come near.

      A shuttle-type sort of ship started hovering over where Fox and Krystal were driving. A sort of landing ramp hit the ground while it was still flying at the same speed as a door opened. What seemed like eight, nine various furs were on similar motorcycles, ready to come down the ramp.

      First up that slid down were a pair of rats, armed with rifles. They turned on the heat of the throttle until they were roughly fifteen feet ahead, then turned around and leveled the rifle. A white flash of gunfire, then the white-hot enmity of a laser lashed out at Krystal's bike. Just as Eric aimed his rapid-fire weapon to fell the foe before he could cause some damage, the bike ride suddenly lurched forward, taking a horrible turn for the bumpier. Fox leaned over his shoulder to see what was wrong, while Eric was recovering from almost falling off of the bike.

      The second rat that had rolled off of the ramp had successfully punctured the back tire, lowering the speed to dangerously low levels and causing the turning of the bike to take a turn for the ludicrously worse.

      While Fox was struggling to take control of the bike, Sarah squeezed the trigger with much distaste at the rat in front of them. Right around at this time, a black bear was rolling down from the ship on the side toting a flamethrower.

      Sarah's bullets were peppering the rat as both tires blew from the sustained impact of the lead assault. He crumpled off of the bike to be ran over by Fox. This final impact on the battered motor bike was too much for the rapidly failing durability. The front wheel came to an immediate halt, throwing Fox and Eric over the handlebars. Eric landed on a sharp pointy rock, penetrating his shoulder. The warm, sticky embrace of a puncture wound flooded over Eric's shoulder. Fox wasn't much better off; his head hit the ground, knocking him out.

      Eric ripped his arm from the rock, blood spurting from the wound. Somewhere in Eric's mind were the words, "The same arm in the same half-hour… I'm gonna have to reconsider my career choice…" He grabbed the assault rifle and aimed at the bear, who was circling around to finish off the job. However, that took time, and Eric never gave him another chance. Eric squeezed the trigger, the laser blasts zinging through the air, clanging in his ears. Dust was flung in front of his face as the bear started to get a shot off when the lasers connected with the large form of the grizzly. He crumpled and fell off of the bike.

      Eric lifted himself up gingerly and ran over to Fox's unconscious body. Shaking him by the shoulders, he could hear Fox groan…

      "Hey, man, wake up!"

      "Nngh… Eric… what happened?"

      "You took a nasty fall. Come on! We still have to make it to the base!"

      Suddenly, out of the corner of Eric's eye, one of the most ominous sights beset his eyes since his technology teacher.

      "Well, well, well. Look at what the pack has brought this time…"

      "Krystal, stop the bike and turn around!" Sarah screamed as she emptied the second clip at the encroaching bike gang.

      "Huh?!" She steered out to the side to avoid a plasma gutting. "I can't! There are too many of them!"

      "FOX AND ERIC FELL! ARE YOU BLIND?!?" Sarah shouted above the blood pounding in her ears.

      "We can't deviate from set parameters!" Krystal hollered, beginning to sound more like Fox than herself. "We have to get in there and force the leader to surrender, that way we can end this and we won't have to worry about Venom."

      "I don't care!" Sarah yelled, tossing the last empty clip and drawing her bow, which had fifteen arrows in it. "Turn around!" She reached for the steering mechanism and almost caused Krystal to run into a hole.

      "What would you think Eric would do?!" Krystal said, swerving to the right to avoid hitting several pillars in the ground and to offer Sarah a better shot at the pursuing forces. The train now was mounting guns as the last of the few rats fell.

      "He's probably bitch and moan, just like I'm doing!" Sarah yelled. "Then again… he'd also be just as likely to say, 'keep going, dumbass! Don't get yourself killed for me!'"

      "You see?!" Krystal said. Krystal started driving parallel to the train while the top-mounted plasma guns swiveled around. It launched several bluish balls into the air with a "PHUMMF" sound. The balls started to slowly float to the ground almost a hundred feet in front of them.

      "What the hell is it doing?!" Sarah questioned as the bike screamed past, taking those one hundred feet quite rapidly.

      The one of the blue balls hit the ground a few yards away disappeared, accompanied with the frenzied sound of an uncountable number of tiny explosions. The world exploded in pain for both companions , forcing them off the bike. Skidding to a halt and ripping most of both of their shirts, Sarah rolled over, trying to make a hasty recovery. A "PHUMMF" sound was heard. Looking up, a blue sphere of impending doom was headed right toward them.


	23. The Battle Intensifies Chapter XXIII

Chapter III

Krystal swerved out of the way at the last nanosecond to avoid a fatal impact. It was out of the frying pan, however, as the blast exploded into a fragmentation effect, sending bits and pieces of plasma everywhere. Krystal's and Sarah's right arms were impaled by the shattered shrapnel. The immense pain caused Krystal to swerve wildly and Sarah to drop Eric's submachine gun.

Krystal started to slow down the bike as the pain clouded her mind. No, she told herself. I can't get past this train going on the side…

"Sarah!" Krystal called out, muttering softly to remove the pain in her arm.

"Yeah?" Sarah replied, trying to nock an arrow and failing with only one good arm. Krystal was slowing down, the back of the train was now running perpendicular to the bike and the cannon in the middle was retracting. "What are you doing?! They're going to get away!" She protested.

"Trust me!" Krystal said. She put a soothing hand on Sarah's injured arm. She couldn't concentrate enough to fix the wound, but she could take away the pain.

Krystal ran over the tracks and was chasing the rear bumper of the train. "Get ready!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. Flooring the throttle, she picked up speed and was going faster than the train until the front wheel hit the rear of the train, causing the bike to explode!

Using the propulsion force of the motorcycle, Krystal and Sarah leapt to hold onto the back of the train. Sarah found herself screaming when she looked down at the ground, speeding along below the train at a blur.

"What the HELL did you do?!" Sarah yelled.

"Got us an infiltration tool, come on!" Krystal yelled, grabbing Sarah's hand and pulling her into the back car. Sarah nocked an arrow out of instinct.

"Come on, we have to find a hiding place." Krystal whispered.

"What EXACTLY do you have in mind?!" Sarah demanded.

"This is a supply train. It was even headed for the building that Fox was told to target. If we hang out here, we can get in there and figure out what's going on!" Krystal replied.

"That's a pretty good idea… but how do you know this is a supply train?"

"Look behind you." Sarah complied with Krystal's statement.

"Whoa… if Eric could only see where I am now…" All kinds of rapid-fire energy weapons were stuffed into the tiny car with various supply orders.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in." Eric said sarcastically to the new foes. Wolf and Leon were there with a few other soldiers, holding Katt, gagged, at gunpoint. "Hey Wolf… the safety's on."

O' Donnell replied by burning a hole through Eric's foot with his blaster. Eric cried out in pain. The two StarWolf team members, with several borrowed troops from Venom had found Eric and Fox and were taking advantage of their confused state.

"Well, isn't this an irony." Wolf sneered. "The two biggest annoyances in my career and they are defeated by a stroke of bad luck"

"You call bumbling every assassination attempt you've EVER done a career? Shoot, Wolf. Even I have standards…" Those would be the last words Eric would say for awhile. A burly pig held him behind as Wolf took a cheap shot at Eric's head, breaking his jaw. Eric stumbled to his knees.

"An acid tongue won't get you very far in this world, filth." Wolf yelled in his face. Eric mumbled back and spat blood through clenched teeth, sunglasses dangling from one ear. "Hmmph." Wolf said with a sense of triumph.

The pig and several other guards picked up Fox and Eric as Leon removed Fox's blaster and Murasma by the scabbard. Wolf hit a button on a remote control and the light ahead of them shimmered.

"What the?!" Fox said. Eric murmured, his jaw feeling like it was biting itself in half.

In the midst of a previously empty clearing, first the outline, then the full body of the menacing Cerberus ship came shimmering into view.

"Maybe this wasn't a very good idea…" Sarah said as she spun around and sliced a Chihuahua upside the head. They had only managed one car before what seemed like half of Venom's army came storming in. Fortunately, they were lining up like bowling pins, forcing Sarah to learn a technique that would come in handy later; an arrow that goes through the target. The Penetration Arrow.

"Sieraan!" Sarah cried out as another wave appeared.

"There's no end in sight!" Krystal cried out as she let forth a chilling blizzard from her staff. "Sarah?"

Sarah was frozen in place, a helping hand being lent by the forces beyond the grave. In black and white, a floorboard beneath a chair was illuminated in the midst of dark shades.

Sarah fired off another penetration arrow and yanked Krystal towards her. "Over here!"

They both yanked the seat away from the wall and chucked it in the way of the advancing army. Krystal tapped it with her staff and with a small chant of "lrain du hastmans…", she bolted the chair to the middle of the car. The various Venom guards had troubles climbing over the now-immovable chair.

"Come on!" Sarah said, breaking open the floorboards. Underneath was a tunnel that seemed to lead to the front of the train, just big enough to be on hands and knees. "Sieraan!" Sarah cried out, firing another Penetration Arrow and diving head first into the tunnel. Krystal immediately followed suit.

Cries of rage and frustration could be heard as a deafening **CLANG CLANG CLANG** hit the tunnel and nearly blew Krystal's eardrums. "They must have muscled their way through the chair!" Krystal said. Lancing lasers of a crimson hue impaled the ceiling of the incredibly small tunnel as a few soldiers started crawling in after them.

"AUUUGH!" Krystal cried out. "They've got my tail!" And so they had. Looking back, a burly pig had grabbed Krystal's tail and was pulling her back into a sweeping mob of Venom forces, and there wasn't enough room for the Beamstriker to be drawn!

Sarah pulled out several arrows and started slinging them like darts at the encroaching forces of Venom. The one holding onto Krystal got one in the eye and let go from pain. With no time to spare, Krystal and Sarah crawled as fast as their limbs could carry them. From behind them, the sound of blaster fire and the crimson flashes flew at them, one laser nailing Krystal's flank.

"Get out of there, I'm gonna gas 'em!" Could be heard amidst Krystal's screams of pain, followed the slow hissing of deadly nerve gas being slowly pumped into an agonizingly small tunnel.

"Well... history has a funny way of repeating itself, doesn't it?" Fox said in the prison cells of the Cerberus.

"Mmm?" Eric moaned.

"Let's just say that I've gotten captured my fair share in this profession. Occupational hazard, you learn to deal with it."

"Mm-hmm."

"Can you speak? How bad is your jaw damage?" Fox asked Eric. Eric responded by shaking his head no and spreading his hands wide. "That bad, huh?" Fox said.

"Mm-hmm."

"We're going to have to get you orthodontic headgear, otherwise it'll never heal."

"Mf?!" Eric murmured. He grabbed a splintered piece of the plaster floor and started to draw a crude picture of a vixen in the floor, and then wrote next to it, "blue vixen".

"Krystal?" Fox asked. Eric nodded. "If we don't set the bone before she tries to pull something, it'll heal crooked that much faster." Eric rolled his eyes in frustration.

"WHat do we know?" Eric scrawled nearly incoherently.

"Huh?" Fox said, squinting. "Oh," he added, getting the message. "I don't know… I hate prisons. You'd think I'd be used to them by now… the wardens will throw every trick under Solar to get you to snap. I know. I've taken plenty. Torture, brainwash… then the torture that you don't get behind bars…" Fox slunk into a corner as he started talking about his past. "Do you know how it's like to watch your father die, being powerless to prevent anything?"

"Mmm…"

"Or watching your mother blown up right in front of your face?!" Fox practically yelled. He had gotten up and was in a rage.

"Or watching your fiancé shot RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU?!?!" Eric cowered and scooted away from Fox. He had familiarity with this kind of anger; you give them time and they'll calm down. Fox slumped, energy spent. "I'm sorry, Eric… I didn't mean to take it out on you…"

_I bet you meant that, man…_ Eric thought grimly. He was ready to spring to the side in case Fox found his emotional punching bag with Eric.

"I'm sorry… sometimes…" Fox muttered into a wall. "I just hate this job…"

"y u take it?" Eric scrawled.

"Why… huh? Oh," Fox added, getting Eric's shorthand. "I felt I had to live up to my father's reputation. And the rest of it is a bit more selfish than that. You see… I want revenge on the ape who took my life away from me and gave me years of suffering and loneliness. Andross… Andross… ANDROSS!" The force of Fox's scream was practically enough to knock Eric down. Fox reared around and punched the wall and gave a small grunt.

"Wha-GAAAAAH!" Eric cried out, trying to talk through his jaw pain. Fox brought his hand back, split open from the force he exerted on the wall. _"Whoa…"_ Eric thought. _"The guy packs punch."_

"They say that hind-sight is twenty-twenty," Fox went on. "If I could do it all over again, I would have fixed all the mistakes I made. Like getting mom out of the car that day and killing Pigma when I had the chance…"

"Yeh… 'bout yur fasher…" Eric started, trying to keep his mouth closed enough so his jaw didn't interfere. Even so, it ached horribly.

"Yeah?" Fox said, looking up.

"Ah shood probaby tell you someting abouut your fasher and mosher…"

"MOVE!" Krystal cried, ramming into Sarah in an attempt to get her to move faster. Sarah was crawling as fast as she could, but the gaseous death was flowing freely, unrestricted through the tunnel. Already, Krystal's keen nose could already smell the deadly vapors.

_"We're doomed," _Sarah thought.

"_Not yet. You're forgetting something…"_ Vixy whispered to Sarah._ "Above you…" _A black and white sonar image followed immediately afterward.

Without hesitation, Sarah started ramming the ceiling of the tunnel that they were in. Krystal could hear the Venomians, so far back from the sudden sprint, laughing in triumph. "What are you doing?! We have to move!" She said, suddenly noticing Sarah's attempts to break down the ceiling.

"Give me a hand here!" Sarah yelled. Combining their strength, they began to dent the ceiling! "One… Two… THREE!" They cried, smashing into it at the same time. The ceiling of the tunnel succumbed. Lucky for the two members of the Star Fox Fellowship, the gas was already upon them and both women were feeling nauseous.

Suddenly, the tunnel ceiling gave way and they were given a blessed breath of fresh air. Insidious laughter could be heard behind them as it became apparent that they were several cars ahead. Closing the door behind them, they did the best they could in putting the piece of metal back in the hole to keep the toxic vapors from their level.

"Shh!" Sarah whispered. "Stealth before confrontation. We have to be more careful from here on out." Sarah grabbed an arrow and Krystal drew her staff.

**Clang clang clang.**

Footsteps! The door behind them opened as a sole grey fox walked through the door. "Now for the victory cold one-" Sarah cut him short with the arrow thrown like a dagger. Krystal, without missing a beat, leapt forward to drag him out of sight.

"Shoot… so much for subtlety…" Sarah cursed. Krystal hid him in an ammunition closet. "We really need to move. How much more time before this thing reaches the mission destination?"

"Not much longer… if we intend on blowing this joint, we're going to have some work to do."

"Let me check how much longer we have…" Sarah said tensely. Great, the entire mission was going down the drain… she thought. Poking her head out of the train window, the Venom base was getting closer. What was closer, however, was a change in the tracks to a fuel depot… Sarah checked her quiver. One arrow had regenerated. Another wouldn't be on the way for a while. "Krystal… how do the train tracks change?

"A switch is flipped on the right side of the train. Two miles ahead, the train tracks then switch. Why?"

"I have an idea." Switching window sides to be on the right hand, she saw the switch approaching rapidly. Nocking the arrow, she only had one shot… wait… wait for it… the windspeed would make this shot nearly impossible. Wait… the screaming outside of the still-raging battle of Corneria vs. Venom was deafening and throwing off her concentration.

"What the…?!" Came an unfamiliar voice.

"Sarah!" Krystal called.

NOW! Sarah let forth the arrow, crying out in hope. Hit the target… she willed as Krystal ran into her, shoving her out of the emergency exit of the train. For a split second, they were suspended in inertia before hitting the ground like a bag of bricks. For what seemed like an eternity, the hostile blows of Venom's uneven territory and their immense momentum jostled them as they were thrown from the train, machine gun volleys flinging from the train by the enraged Venomians. A flurry of confusion later, Sarah found Krystal lying on top of her as the train sped on. Shoving Krystal off of her, she immediately looked up at the speeding train and the switch she was firing at. The arrow had pierced the switch, moving it back, changing the tracks.

"Yeah!" Sarah cried out in a victory whoop. That was one less supply train they would have to deal with, especially heading to that explosive depot… but why wasn't Krystal celebrating? "Krystal?" Sarah turned around and sank to her knees in grief.

Krystal's back had gotten speared numerous times by the acid rain of crimson laser. Her spine was visible through all the holes made by the angry hornet swarm of automatic rifle blows, and one went through Krystal's cranium, spearing her mind and separating her consciousness to the Outer Plane.

"No…" Sarah said, slamming her hand into the ground. Krystal, of all the people she had met so far, were the most down-to-earth, easiest to make friends with, which can be saying something for nobility. "No…" A casualty on the battlefield… One of her best friends, taken away before she could know her other than the battlefield… Sarah felt like she was going to explode… "No, fuck, no…" She slammed her hand into the ground in rage.

"NOOOO!"

Eric stood there, his jaw feeling rubbed raw after trying to talk through clenched teeth. He had poured out the story of Murasma, Beamstriker and what he knew of James and Vixy McCloud. Fox stood there, gaping in disbelief. "'n' you wan' pruf?" Eric ended. "Mah shord hash 'Eric J. McCloud' on the hilt."

"No… I don't believe you."

"Zatsh what you claim, but you don't want to believe me."

"No shit. I've spent most of my life trying to put the past behind me, and now you come telling me the most far-fetched story ever. A brief foray into the land of the dead and telling me that your body is partially inhabited by my late father. Don't you understand?!" Fox whimpered, fear in his voice and eyes now. "You don't have any idea the kind of psychological scars you're reopening right now…"

_I bet I do,_ Eric thought.

"Even if you're right… do you really think I could take it? Not seeing my family for years, getting past the fact that they're dead and then seeing them again?

"Mmmm… mm hmm?"

Fox sighed exasperatedly. "You don't understand. You never will be able to understand until one you love becomes ripped from your life, you try to put it behind you, and you think you succeed and you are then faced with the fact that they're alive.

"Not rihlly alive, just ze soulz return. I don' really know ze answers…"

"You know them, you just don't want to tell me. That's it, isn't it."

"I've told you all I know about the experiment on the Outer Plane."

"You know more than you think you do. I can tell. I'm not stupid."

"I know that, I just don' know what you mean by knowing more than I think I know. That doesn' even seem possible."

"It is. Just… nevermind…" Fox said, slumping into the corner with his thoughts. Eric felt bad for the guy; having his family taken, his fiancé… life just naturally sucked for him. This current bit of information must be hard.

"NOOOO!"

Eric and Fox jerked upright. "What the hell was that?" They both said simultaneously, the conversation going behind them for the moment.

"That sounded like Sarah…" Eric mused. "Something really, really bad just happened."

"And is going to happen. Listen!" Fox said.

"I don't hear anything…"

"If you really have my dad inside you, you'd hear that," Fox said. "Footsteps!"

Then, a blood-curdling shout echoed through the prison cell.

"It's time for your execution."


	24. If this is the calm, Chapter XXIV

Chapter IV

"It's time for your execution." Leon Powalski snarled.

"Oh, oh, zish ish perfect…" Eric muttered. He reached for the piece of plaster he used to write on the wall.

"What are you doing?!" Fox hissed. "You can't take them on with one piece of plaster!"

"Jusht watch me…" Eric missed most of Fox's point; there were more than one foe. Walking up the wall with his hands on one of the beds, he managed to get himself lodged in between the ceiling. Six or seven soldiers walked into the room with Leon in the back. Clutching his piece of sharp plaster, it would be his only chance… and then they might shoot Fox before he could grab Leon's gun…

Eric leapt down from the ceiling, planting his plaster piece into Leon's neck. It wasn't like the time he was killing prior Venom guards who were merely drafted, this time he felt like he was ridding the land of an evil piece of trash…

He liked it.

He immediately grabbed Leon's blaster and shoved his corpse at the platoon of gaurds, creating confusion. Two or three had enough sense to level their blasters at Fox, who seized the initiative Eric bought him, with a double roundhouse knocking over two guards and flipping backwards over a volley of lasers, picking up a blaster from a guard's dead fingers.

Eric had Leon's blaster ready and was already firing, but three of the guards turned around, malice planted on their face. The other two conscious or alive ones rounded on Fox. Squeezing their triggers, two shots found home on Eric's tender flesh. Rolling to the side, he fired a blind round at one of the guards and missed, then got his focus before he was hit again in the leg. Aiming, he got two of the guards who were on him as Fox flipped over the two on him, kicking the third on Eric in the back giving Eric enough of an opportunity to finish one guard off. Fox then snapped the neck of the last one up.

"That'sh break-neck shpeed, Fox." Eric quipped. Fox almost laughed in spite of himself. 

"Throw them in their own prison and grab the clips in the guns. We're going to need all the firepower we can get." Fox ordered. "I'll try to find my radio and get the Great Fox over here…"

Eric pointed to his mouth and said, "Shtill hurtsh, you talk."

"Agreed." Eric picked up another blaster and handed a second to Fox. "What's the extra gun for?"

Eric aimed in two opposite directions to answer before suddenly convulsing. "Gnn!" Eric stumbled, clutching his side and leg in agony.

"What's wrong?!" Fox asked suddenly, before he noticed the smoking holes in Eric's chest and leg. Whoa, Fox thought. There's not a kid I know at his age who can take three lasers…

"Nngh…" Eric groaned. Fox helped him to his feet. 

"Where's Krystal when you really need her?" Fox muttered to himself.

"Mm?" Eric asked.

"Never mind."

Fox and Eric limped hurredly throughout the ship. It wouldn't take very long for the rest of the ship to come in, wondering where Leon and his battalion was, and then all hell would break loose. And neither of them wanted to be around when Wolf found out Leon was dead… Eric wouldn't be surprised if Wolf just started killing people at complete random in a rage.

A few minutes of walking through the corridor, they came to a pair of double doors. "You know what's beyond here?" Eric shrugged. "Well, the way I see it, they're all going to be at the execution site. The guards of the ship, I mean. It's slim odds there in this room, of all rooms, right?" Eric nodded. "Well, in that case…" both companions placed foot to door and glimpsed the inside.

"Oh, -"

"-crap."

"-shit."

The room they had just walked into was absolutely packed with guards and the surviving members of the Star Wolf team. The room of Fox and Eric's execution!

Sarah knelt by Krystal's corpse and closed her half-mast eyelids shut. If there ever was a time she listened to her parents about matters of sentimentality, this was it. Forming a cross with her hands, Sarah got up, mind in a blind rage. She dashed over, to where the switch was, the arrow pushing back the switch as the train changed tracks. Sarah yanked out the arrow and stuffed it in the quiver at her back. She then affixed the quiver to her leg to allow for better access for arrows as they come as she pulled out a pocket-radio Slippy gave her and dialed the Great Fox.

"Slippy here. How are you holding up?" Came a familiar high-pitched voice.

"Like hell, Slippy. Eric and Fox are MIA after falling from a bike, and Krystal's dead." At the mention of Krystal's name, Sarah fought back a knot in her throat.

"Oh…" A long silence on the other end of the line. "…Man… Well…" Slippy was obviously taken aback at how quickly the battle had gone to hell. "What do you want us to do? Falco's ArWing is damaged to the point of being out of the fight, and the Great Fox has it's hands full delivering soldiers faster than they could walk and is in it's own battles!"

Sarah grit her teeth. Powerlessness was not a feeling that came easily to her and was even harder to shake off. Eric got on her case for being an overachiever, but she was needed, for the love of god!

"Fine. I'll get them out… somehow…" Sarah muttered.

"Wait…!" Slippy started before Sarah cut him off.

"If I'm going to get this done, I'm on my own," Sarah said aloud, diving for a ditch. "Think, Sarah, think! What were you told about before with the furries?"

_"Remember, Sarah," _Vixy whispered across the realms. _"You have to make it to the central command center in that building and destroy their radar sense. That way, the planes will be greatly hindered without radar and our air forces can clean up the ground."_

"Thanks, Mrs. McCloud…" Sarah said gratefully. Vixy could be heard complaining, _"Just call me Vixy…"_ but Sarah took no notice. She had to pull this off, or the strike force would fail. Putting Beamstriker back over her shoulder, she made a mad sprint for the building, which was shockingly close by now. The fate of a universe rested on her shoulders, and by golly, she was not going to let it down!

"Aw, crap."

"Oh, shit…"

Eric and Fox slammed the double doors shut in the nick of time as the high-pitched whine of a laser assault slammed into the doors. A millisecond later, lasers speared through the doors faster than the eye could see. Suddenly, Eric felt his wrist grabbed by Fox as he was thrown from the path of death. A second later the door was flung open as hordes of soldiers and Cerberus guards came running out into the hallway.

They sprinted through the corridors, pursuit on their tails. Fox pulled the bedraggled and injured Eric and mashed the "down" button.

Eric gave Fox a look that very clearly said, "Are you INSANE?!?!?" Then made a hand-gesture to the outside and formed two legs with his hands. He mimicked sliding down a ladder and formed a pistol with two fingers, then pointed to both him and Fox, finally giving a loud grunt and scattered his hands to the four winds.

"Fox stared. "You're saying they're going to go downstairs, wait for the elevator to open, then blow us away?" Eric nodded. "And you think I didn't think of that?" Eric nodded again. "Well… then you'd be right. Plan B."

Fox leapt at the wall of the rather large elevator and kicked off, hanging from the ceiling door. Lifting himself up, he forced his weight downward, breaking the ceiling hatch open and giving themselves access to the roof as the elevator started moving down. Eric pointed at his wristband clock with increasing urgency.

Eric limped over to the hatch as Fox climbed on the elevator's roof and gave Eric a paw up. Once Eric was on the roof with Fox, Fox grabbed a hold of one of the ropes and beckoned for Eric to follow suit. "No, the same rope." Fox commanded. Eric grabbed it nervously, questioning what Fox had in mind. As soon as the elevator stopped, Fox waited for three seconds before shooting the bottom of the rope Eric and Fox were holding with a death grip. Immediately, Eric realized exactly what Fox had in mind; he clenched the rope with a death grip as all balance equilibrium was lost as they zoomed upwards with the speed of a peregrine falcon. At the same time, the elevator plummeted to the first floor.

At the top of the climb, at the third and top floor of the Cerberus, the rope jammed, preventing their hands from being lacerated at the top of the rope. Swinging to gain momentum, they launched themselves at the elevator door and poured into the hallway and were on their feet in seconds, for Fox's diversion would not last long.

Eric tried focusing on where his sword was; he was feeling helpless without the cool grip of the handle. He reached out with a hand and was returned with nothing. Fox was frantically pulling him along by the arm in an attempt for two things: a weapon and a way out. Kicking a random door, both men could hear the frantic footsteps of the hunt, doing everything in its power to catch them.

A volley of lasers suddenly flew from behind them, getting Fox in the back as they plowed through a random door on the hallway. There must have been a benevolent god somewhere in this turbulent battle, for the first thing Eric's hand landed on was Murasma's hilt. Fox quickly found a machine-gun blaster.

Eric shook his head as Fox turned around, gun aimed at the door, ready to go down fighting. Eric pulled the sword around the incredibly cramped closet and clanged it against the back wall, the tight room was barely able to contain the to compatriots such.

We're screwed, James, Eric thought.

_"Not quite. Take another look…"_ James responded as soldiers came through the door in slow motion and colorless. A flash, Eric had cut the wall, and another flash. The Great Fox underneath a distorted image of Solar. The guards were back with color in their fur, and Eric slashed three more times to make a square in the original cut of the tiny closet, then grabbed Fox's arm and tumbled out of the hole he had made in the wall, tumbling out of the outer wall of the Cerberus.

Tumbling through the wall, several lasers found their mark on Fox as they fell through the hole made by Murasma. Almost three seconds later, they landed on the Great Fox with a bone-shattering CRUNCH. Eric rolled into where the wing met the body on top. However, Fox rolled to absorb the impact and slipped off, barely being able to grab the wing edge.

"Help!" Fox called from his precarious grip. Eric leapt forward to where he saw Fox fall, hoping to grab him and pull him to safety before his many laser wounds screamed in agony. Stumbling, he moved forwards as fast as his hands and knees could carry him as a bomb blew a small hole in the wing and covered Eric in metal shards. Looking back at the source of the bomb, Eric saw a familiar face, with boulbous eyes toting a rocket launcher.

"Sanskort…"

"Embrace The End."

Sarah stooped to pick up a gun from a fallen soldier. His death had definitely gruesome; his was missing half of his head and a leg, and had numerous cuts. Whatever had killed him, it was either extremely powerful or not of this world.

Hoisting the heater, Sarah ran for the main building. She had to be confident in her abilities or she would not be able to pull this off and may even not be able to survive. Hopefully, she thought, with Beamstriker, Vixy, and a little luck, I'll get seen through this. Gun at the ready, she dashed towards the building, crouching underneath the windows as she placed her hand on the door.

"Jodt ucc wiuhtj ke kxo eikcoadw rukkco."

"Rik jah…"

"A um nocc unuho ev kxo cedo kheefoh nxe xuj muto ak fujk tovodjoj. Boof kxo hojk ev kxo Cornerian Army rijo. A nuj huajot ad kxo ogialacudk ev kxo Bronx uk mo xemo fcudok. Kxaj aj jemokxadw u jsimruw cabo oei neictn'k idtohjkudt. De edo rojkj mo."

Sarah took a step inside and her gut instinct (and shade precog) wouldn't stop screaming. A tingly feeling similar to when your foot falls asleep crept over Sarah like a wave of ants, and it wasn't a good feeling. Paranoia set in as the few teachings from her parents that got to her came back with a vengeance. She had two arrows by now, and was going to use them to a good advantage.

Creeping around a corner, she positioned a bow to be able to use the blades as a mirror. It was hard; Beamstriker had a lot of energy (if not arrows) and peering through a yellow flame at a reflection was hard to do. However, Sarah saw that besides the fire, there was no movement. Nocking an arrow, she spun around, ready to shoot.

And yet the corridor was empty. No traps being sprung, and no soldier ready to tear her to pieces with laser fire. This was too easy, and it was making Sarah feel uneasy. Every one of her own footsteps sounded like a dozen hostile paths, her own breathing sounded like a poison gas vent being released.

Being very careful to footpad, her ears strained to catch any sound of persuit. Pushing the button on her new wristband, she decided on letting Vixy's heightened vulpine ears handle the dead silence.

Her back suddenly lurched as the pain set in of bones re-forming and her spine elongating to supply Vixy's tail, and her skull reshaping like something was trying to climb out of it. However, it didn't hurt as much as the first time… it must decrease per transformation.

Instantly, Sarah was beset with an amount of information that she hadn't even counted on before. It was like taking earplugs out of her ears and everything smelled stronger. And yet…

Besides her footprints, there was still nothing. Cold silence. Now, Sarah knew something was up. How could they let such a valuable building go completely unguarded?

_"This is odd…"_ Vixy lamented.

_"Of course… I don't hear or smell anything…"_ Sarah responded.

"_That's what worries me…" _Vixy muttered.

Another few minutes of walking, and a big, black, metallic door stood omnipotently in the middle of a hallway that practically screamed, "Come on in…" Sarah looked around for a keyhole or a passcard slot, or anything that would permit access to the room on the other side. A small box with two holes was on one side of the door and a single button on the outside of the box, but that was it. There was no other source of even possible access.

As Sarah crept towards the box, a smell wafted into her heightened vulpine nostrils and nearly knocked her out. The smell of…

Death…

Sarah tightened her grip on her bow. Staring at the box and looking for anything else other than the holes covered with red glass and the button, she seemed at a loss for something to do. Left with no other choices, she pushed the button.

"Retina Scan activated. Place head in the specified area." The computer droned.

"Uh oh…" Sarah muttered. She looked frantically around in vain for an object to put into the scanner. Oh well, Sarah thought. Looks like I'll have to find another way in…

No sooner had she turned the corner than two pieces of information hit her like a steamroller.

Around the corner, a decapitated scientist stood lay there, vacant eyes staring into space like a man in a coma. The head was still intact, but the rest of the body looked like it had gotten flayed into hamburger.

And at that exact moment, the retinal scan blared, "Alarm will sound if item is not placed in scan in thirty seconds."

Sarah gave an exasperated sigh and quickly decided on using the scientist's head in the scanner. Gingerly picking it up by the wolven ears, she sprinted back and rammed the head in the scanner. It made a series of beeps before droning, "Access approved, Dr. Pendansky," and the doors opened.

"Pendansky?" Sarah muttered to herself. She took a look at many computer terminals around the room. The room was at least as big as twice the size of a standard house and with a computer terminal spaced three feet in between each other in numerous cubicles along the walls and an electricity hub in the center. It was odd… for a place with so much technology, there were no wires… Where was a computer junkie when you needed him?

She examined some of the terminals and let Vixy's consciousness creep over hers; she knew what she was doing. Sarah felt her mind step aside, being able to relax as Vixy's own consciousness stepped in to take over.

Vixy bent over, investigating the computer screens, and discovered that all of them had wireless adapters. On many of the screens, there were references to a connection to a satellite which was powering mechs outside.

_"You know what this means?"_ Sarah asked from her backseat in the car that was Vixy's body.

"Yeah," Vixy muttered to herself. "This is the power station." At these words, she raised the assault rifle she brought and was about to open fire when the strap was suddenly cut loose, screwing up her aim and causing her to spray the bullets upwards wildly. Vixy somersaulted forward to get another look at her attacker, spinning 180 degrees and bringing the rifle barrel back up to look at her attacker. A towering, eight-foot-tall scaly creature wielding a sword and a metal hook for a left hand.

"General Scales…"

"De kouhj. Ak'j u nujko ev weet jivvohadw." _No tears. It's a waste of good suffering._


	25. Then what is the storm? Chapter XXV

Chapter V

      Adrenaline soared through Eric's battered body. He didn't know how much more he could take, but he felt he could take quite a bit more.

      He stood up straight, facing Sanskort and his long-range implement of destruction. Bending over, ready for the pull of the trigger, Eric paused to anticipate where Sanskort was going to fire. Eyes intent on Sanskort's gun and hand on his sword, Eric gazed intently at Sanskort as the two engaged in a staring contest to determine who would act first.

      Sanskort flinched. Half his body seemed to shudder when his gangly finger pulled the trigger. Eric was saved by both the warning and the slow speed of the missle. Eric cought out of the corner of his eye as the rocket hit the top of a mountain and caused a small avalanche.

      Eric saw his chance. He dashed at Sanskort, drawing his blade. Sanskort's bulbous eyes widened as he abandoned reloading the rocket launcher to roll out of the way of a clumsily-aimed swing. Spinning around, Eric's eyes caught something odd.

      Sanskort was shapeshifting! But into what?

      Eric paused to see the form Sanskort was using instead of his own. His bald, round head ridden with visible veins shrank and turned fleshy-colored. Dark, brown hair sprouted up as the gangly arms became stronger and more sure of themselves. Sanskort seemed to be getting slightly taller, his skin was going from a clammy blue-green to a pasty white. His fingers shortened, as did his neck. And, strangely, an object seemed to be coming out from the back of his combat vest. But when all was transformed, Eric saw himself staring at... himself...

      Sanskort ripped off the now-ill-fitting combat vest as a flaming sword fell to the Great Fox hull. Before it could slide off, Sanskort put his foot down and flipped it into his hand. Eric gaped as he saw an exact replica in appearance of his sword. But was it the same in function? He was about to find out the hard way.

      By now, the doppelganger-turned Eric was examining Murasma-clone with fascination. "But this would mean... impossible..." He looked at the sword, then at Eric. "This is more than I could have ever dreamed..." Part of a facade of bloodthirstiness seemed to drop as genuine wonder took place. Sanskort suddenly seemed to realize where he was, then turned back at Eric. "Tell you what; I'll do you a favor," Sanskort said, the angry tone back in his voice. "I'll help you out with what this sword has to offer," and with that leapt forward, plunging forward. Eric, in his weary state, only just manage to slide to the side, moving away from where Sanskort attacked.

      Eric rolled off to the side several times before readying his sword and facing his assailant. Snapping the blade off, he heaved it at Sanskort with all of his might, missing Sanskort by several inches in the process.

      Seeing his temporarily unarmed opponent, Sanskort charged with the Murasma copy. Eric ducked the first horizontal swing, but Sanskort had a surprise with the second one.

      Sanskort paused for a brief moment before bringing it down with a crushing vertical slice. What made it unusual, though, was that the flame on the sword increased  it's size drastically, increasing to the size of the average zanbatou. Eric's feet were singed by the blistering wall, the new size of Sanskort's edge made.

      Pulling out of his roll, Eric held up the handle of his sword and caught Murasma on it's return flight, and closed with Sanskort in a brutal exchange of dracocite-on-dracocite.

      Eric came off the worse in the struggle, and was forced back several paces. He was already close to the edge, and his back heel was standing on air. Sanskort approached with an odd expression between hatred and pity on his face. Shaking his head, he made for the final swing.

      Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Great Fox suddenly lowered rapidly, getting close to the ground and throwing Sanskort off balance. Eric had already gone into a balance crouch in preparation for any more moves, and seeing Sanskort struggling for footing, he seized his chance. Grabbing Sanskort by the hand not holding the Murasma copy, he threw Sanskort (who, in Eric's body, was not that heavy) over his shoulder and off the Great Fox.

      Over the back of his shoulder, Eric saw Sanskort roll along the ground; the tactic the Great Fox used had put the distance from the ground at non-lethal levels. They were rid of the shape changer, and Eric almost breathed a sigh of relief when a cry of help brought him back to Earth.

      "Help me!"

      "Shit!" Remembering what he had to do, he dashed for the side of the ship where Fox was knocked off. Reaching down, he grabbed Fox's hand and pulled him to safety, barely making it in time before a laser from a ship above blew a sizeable hole in the Great Fox armor. Looking up, the duo saw the Cerberus and three Wolfen II's.

      Dodging a vicious assault of lasers, Eric and Fox dashed to the hangar entry in the back of the Great Fox. Grabbing their ships, they flew out to engage Star Wolf in aerial combat.

      SWISH.

      Scales had swung so close to Sarah that in ducking, her shoulder was nicked by Scales' blade. She evaded backwards, and hoisted her bow to find Scales had already closed the gap. The General reached for her with his hook hand, and this time, he didn't miss.

      The iron claw made it's lesson immediately apparent as it clutched Sarah, cutting her deeply and threatening to dislocate ribs. Scales shook his hand back and forth with zealous fervor, Sarah howling out in pain.

      Reaching for an arrow in the hip quiver, she managed to pierce Scales' wrist with it. The sudden shock caused him to drop Sarah as she limped away, but Scales would not be held at bay for much longer.

      Scales pulled the arrow out of his wrist with a sickening sound not unlike the squelch you get from stepping in mud. Biting the tip of the arrow off, he rounded on Sarah, fury plastered on his face.

      Another cataclysmic barrage of sword swings later, Scales had Sarah cornered into a veritable cubicle of computers. "Tao, ximud!" Scales yelled out in exasperation as Sarah barely dodged another swing. Sarah herself was getting so weary she couldn't even comprehend what Scales said, and hit the wall behind her when everything lost all hue to it, an invisible detachement of Sarah's eyes looking at the central computer in the room. And then, that's when she knew what to do…

      Taking quick aim, she let loose an explosive arrow at the central computers. Scales, seeing Sarah raise her bow, brought his sword down hard. The arrow made contact with the main computer terminal. There was a bright flash of light, and all was black.

      When Sarah came to shortly after, all she could feel was an incredible weight and a sharp pain in her legs. Scales had taken the full force of the explosion, and in a sad irony saving Sarah's life. Not without consequence, however. Scales' claw hand had pierced both legs and a blood pool was starting to accumulate.

      Heaving ho, Sarah squirmed her way out of Scales' weight. Air flooded Sarah's lungs as the heavy sack of flesh pinning her to the floor slid off of her with a sound akin to hitting a ripe cantaloupe with a sledgehammer. Whatever happened when the arrow hit the computers, it mutilated Scales; so much skin had peeled off that Sarah could see Scales' spine and half the muscles through a hole the size of three watermelons. On top of that, Scales was going to need a new claw hand, assuming he survived. That alone was unlikely.

      Sarah was about to hustle and leave when a glistening caught her eye. Turning to the left, she peered through the shades on the window and was taken aback by what she saw.

      A huge tower materialized out of thin air. Several plane wrecks could be seen, suggesting that they had flown into the invisible tower, not realizing it was there. The top had the enclosed space similar to that of a bell tower on top, but the stairs up were on the exterior as opposed to the interior. An omniboding presence emanated from the tower that drew Sarah closer – and sparked unyielding loathing from Vixy. Checking the supply of arrows, Sarah walked out of the lab and towards the Tower of Ire.

      Eric was more than happy to get in the protection of a vehicle. After all, he had gotten shot, slashed, and burned in the last few hours and his skin couldn't take it. At least now it'd be a lifeless hunk of metal taking the blows for him.

      Fox, on the other hand, had his guard up. He knew the kind of threat that the Wolfen II's posed, and being two on four, the odds were stacked against them. Gritting his teeth, Fox tightened his grip on the flight stick and hit the booster.

      One of the Wolfen II's came flying out of nowhere and started shooting on Eric's tail. He frantically mashed the button he presumed to be the one for the barrel roll when the brakes activated. He couldn't remember the cockpit button!

      _Eric, try that button…_ James started. Eric pushed several of the buttons in the direction that James seemed to be pointing until finally he managed to shake the Wolfen II. Unfortunately, the Silent Arrow was now in a nosedive.

      Fox had problems of his own. The Great Fox had the Cerberus stalemated, but it wouldn't be long before the weapons of the Cerberus had the shields of the Great Fox beat, and a 1 on 2 fight is something no one looks forward to. Letting loose a bomb, he saw the impact damage significantly one of the Wolfen II's; Fox couldn't tell which.

      Eric pulled up and saw all three Wolfen II's in his sights, and the opportunity was too great to miss. Letting loose all three bombs in reserve at strategic areas, bomb mushroom cloud flew. Victory seemed at hand, but…

      "I missed?!?" Eric shrieked at the dashboard. Not entirely true; he did graze some of Pigma's shields, but Eric had made a critical mistake; he had forgotten to take into account the fact that Silent Arrow pre-packaged bombs can't be pre-detonated. Pigma was now taking out his fury on the inexperienced pilot.

      Wolf and Andrew had Fox cornered in the middle of a handicap dogfight to make matters worse, leaving Eric to fend for himself. "This ends now, Fox." Wolf said. His voice was not even raised; rather, it was that of a hideously depressed person committing himself to one final project. And with that, he redoubled his efforts. Andrew, who could barely fly a plane, flew over to pick on Eric, letting Wolf have his grudge match with the flying fox of Corneria.

      Time to put the Silent Arrow's maneuverability to good use. Playing a game of chicken with Andrew, Eric had it on top speed. Seconds before impact, Eric yanked the stick and went on it's side, grazing Andrew's ship. Rolling around again, he set forth the laser volley at Andrew's ship, hitting the shield's head-on. Each laser packed little punch, but the Silent Arrow had near rapid-fire capabilities. Andrew broke off feeling the burn.

      "STOP BLOWING HOLES IN MY SHIP!" Andrew yelled, throwing a mini temper tantrum in the cockpit. Eric was too busy keeping his eyes on the sky and swerving randomly to dodge Pigma's laser shots to smirk. Fox was flying by and let loose a bomb into Andrew's engine rear. The back of the ship exploded as Andrew's ship careened into a gorge. Last thing from his ship before it exploded was "Uncle Andross! No!"

      Eric silently thanked Fox as he pulled the Silent Arrow into a hover and stared Pigma down. A glance of fear crossed Pigma's face as Eric stared with a new determination.

      "Who… What are you?" Pigma asked. A few seconds later, Pigma saw the old fire… the fire of that which he betrayed… "No… it can't be!"

      Eric hit the button on his wristband and advanced slowly; Pigma seemed paralyzed. The facial features of James McCloud laced over Eric's face at the speed of the Silent Arrow's lumbering pace.

      "No… you're dead!" Pigma gasped.

      "I would have thought you'd have known this small fact after watching your leader pull it out of his nonexistent ass time and time again," Eric spat. He then let James take over.

      Pigma glanced at Wolf's ship. "Your other master, Dengar," James said with a dangerous calm. "The one who always finds a way to reappear after every fatal defeat. Now, Pigma. You betrayed your team that day. Now…"

      "…Justice has come!" Eric finished, more out of James' finishing speech than his own will. The transformed youth started charging a laser as Pigma fired every shot he had, each one glancing off of the shield thanks to the defensive maneuvers. Eric/James let go of the explosive charge shot and watched as Pigma's ship disappeared in the flames of a loud bang.

      Pigma finished, he started looking up at the dual with Fox and Wolf, both were at their peak, ships looking like they weren't going to last another laser. Fox fired a charge shot at Wolf and the battered engine caught fire. Wolf noticed his ship's fatal damage and went on a collision course with Fox.

      "There's no way you're surviving this time, Fox. If I die, you'll scream with me in the afterlife!" A split second later, half of Fox's ship was gone in a flash of fire. Fox's arm could be seen in the huge hole Wolf made in his crash to earth.

      There was no time to lose. Powering up engines, Eric took a wild gamble and got underneath Fox's ArWing. Parking it in a hover, he opened the air shield and hopped on the small wing and stretched his hand for the falling Fox.

      "Fox!"

      "Father!"

      Sarah was at the top of the tower. She glanced back at a moment at the hazardous stairway which nearly claimed her life thrice over, but she didn't have any time to dwell on it now. Inside the room at the top where the bell would be in a bell tower, there was nothing but a pit that went so far down Sarah couldn't see the bottom. Vixy's intangible fur was still riled from the very presence of this tower.

      _"There's something down there…" _Vixy said as she forcibly took over Sarah's body.

      _"Hey!" _Sarah protested. Taking Beamstriker, Vixy shot an arrow at the edge of the pit, then grabbed the rear of the arrow. Out the back emerged what looked like a bright, yellow, glowing stick, only it bent like a rope. _"What the hell is this?"_

"Rope arrow," Vixy said using Sarah's mouth. It was yet another feeling Sarah would have to get used to anytime soon. Slinging Beamstriker over her back again, Vixy clutched the energy rope and jumped down, the rope acting as a bungee, slowing her fall and growing much larger as they fell.

      As the plummeted in this unknown abyss, the yellowish orange flame on Beamstriker's blades started to recede into the pointed edges. Vixy didn't notice this and when the flames totally disappeared, they stopped going down.

      "This is a heck of a pit," Sarah commented lamely, back in control and clinging the rope arrow for dear life.

      _"I still can't see any light or anything,"_ Vixy started when suddenly the energy rope snapped. Almost three seconds of free-fall and then…

      The universe stopped…

      Surrounded by a green mist, Sarah floated in and then came to a dead stop. Climbing to her feet, she was shocked to discover that there wasn't a tangible floor. Testing the boundaries of reality by jumping up and down, there didn't seem to be any hazard of standing there except that there wasn't a way to escape.

      **"Damn. Not who I was expecting."** The big booming voice nearly knocked her off of her feet. Sarah turned around to see a small ape wearing a lab coat, face mostly hidden by a baseball cap for the Venomian Verve Pipes. **"You wouldn't be interested in helping me find the one I'm seeking, would you? Goes by the name of McCloud?" **At the mention of the family name, Sarah and Vixy stiffened. "Who are you?" Sarah managed to stutter.

      **"I'm no one important,"** the ape said in the magnified voice. **"But I'm looking for someone who is. You can't not know him. So do you know where he is?"**

      "Show your face." Vixy commanded through Sarah's body.

      **"You don't want that."** He said with a commanding formality.

      "What makes you think I don't?" Vixy said, Sarah's voice ice.

      **"If I show my face, you may not see… what you think you would see. What you would want to see. Capiche?"**

      _How can people speak French if this is outer space and there is no France? _Sarah wondered inwardly. "I don't trust the masked. Show yourself." Vixy commanded.

      **"Fine. But remember. I offered a peaceful alternative. You won't like this."** He ripped his lab coat off and presented a gruesome sight.

      Underneath the coat, there was every single appendage imaginable. Spike-lined tentacles, heads with coals of fire in their mouths, arms with eight long, spindly fingers… it was enough to make someone lose their lunch. Even Sarah and Vixy, experiencing what they did in the last few days, gave a dry heave.

      **"You see what my experiments have wraught me?!?"** He cried out. **"The radiation given off by the equipment I've been using recently has mutated me. Twisted my body. Killing me. A painful death and I've never relieved my need to have revenge on the cause.**

      "But I couldn't do it alone. And then, as luck would call it, another organization made it's appearance and is supplying Venom with very powerful weaponry and a cure for me, in exchange for our allegiance. And when Lylat is mine, they will cure me… of this…" He made a gesture to his deformed torso. 

            **"And before the cure,"** He went on, **"I have to use this power to destroy the final threat to a cement rule… Fox McCloud."** The final slot clicked in Vixy's brain.

      "Andross!"

      But he didn't look like Andross at all. Minus the coat and cap, all of his physical features were marred to the point of non-realization.

      And as you can expect, coming face to face with your killer isn't a therapeutic experience. In the back of her mind, Sarah could feel Vixy's mind take a stumble. She would be doing this one, fighting her beliefs superimposed on her by her parents and this mutated being, alone.

      **"You want to know exactly who is pulling me out of this… immense barricade to success?"** Andross said. Sarah had to cartwheel in mid sentence, as Andross' pause was used to fling a fireball out of one of the heads on his torso's mouth. **"I believe that they have already attacked you to attempt to put you out of the picture. They call themselves The End, led by a man named Mordrer."**

      "Is that a fact?" Sarah asked, hoisting her bow. Before she could move, Andross bit a hole in his regular arm with one of the heads on his torso and splashed the dull emerald-colored blood on Sarah. Seconds later, it caught fire, forcing Sarah to miss by several feet as she beat at the fire to put it out. "You're… unreal… A creature of fiction…" Sarah gasped.

      **"Is that a fact?"** Andross said in a mockingly high voice.  **"I am tired of the peace that is Corneria. Do you know what I dream of?"** He added, a dangerous calm touching his voice. When Sarah failed to answer, Andross continued. **"It is a world where I don't have to be looking over my shoulder for someone who is trying to overthrow my experiments. I don't want Lylat control; that's just an unfortunate side effect of the ability to research what I want when I want."**

      "That's not true," Sarah started. "You've killed too many people to not be wanted by Lylat. Why were so many deaths necessary?"

      **"They weren't. That's another unfortunate side effect; they would see what I have in mind and they would try to stop me." **He added more effect by crossing four pairs of arms and spitting some more blood out of the previous self-inflicted wound. **"Something I don't understand though,"** He went on, as Sarah nocked an arrow, **"Is how did you discover this? There's no way to disable the hologram."**

"Your friends must have lied. All it took was an explosion in the computer labs to allow us to see it."

      Andross paused, then rounded on Sarah again. **_"But it was a personal power source," _**he thought. **_"The only way… No…_**" It hit Andross. Fury bubbled over his consciousness. This wasn't possible. No. It was. He was blinded and did not notice it… and he was about to take it all out on the creature that had so carelessly blundered into his lair.

      **"NO!" **He grabbed Sarah by the neck and she immediately felt her body temperature rising. What was it… hot… sweaty… weak… a heat effect… It was blocking out her vision…

      Her consciousness was ebbing… her arms floundered as she kicked around… extreme heat started as her clothes caught fire… and suddenly, the pressure stopped.

      Sarah's first instinct was to hit the ground and the time-honored tradition of putting out fires: stop, drop, and roll. Skin charred to a robust red, she paused for a moment to look at what caused Andross to drop her from his pyrokinetic grip.

      One of the blades on Beamstriker had pierced through one of Andross' heads. Walking gingerly towards the bow, she pulled it out of Andross' forehead.

      **"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"** a voice boomed out after Sarah had turned around, limping towards an exit. Out of instinct, Sarah nocked an arrow, turned, and fired all in one motion. Andross caught it with one of his hands. **"I told you. I can't let you live."** A moment later, the arrow exploded, taking out a majority of Andross's heads and the arm he was using. As the lower half of Andross' mutated body fell to its knees, the green mist that surrounded them turned into a dangerous red. In this swirling sensory overload, Sarah could hear Vixy's mind get back to its feet.

      _"We've got to ge-"_ No sooner had Vixy gotten that far into her sentence when a blinding white light was all that they saw.

      "Fox!"

      "Father!"

      Eric had the slimmest of grips on Fox's arm. And due to the sweat coating each person's fur, the grip would not last long. Mashing the remote control for the jet in his pocket, Eric struggled to bring the ship down. But the hold that Eric and Fox had on each other was weakening.

      100 feet to the ground. That fall would kill a man. It was down to holding onto hands, not arms.

      80 feet to the ground. Fingers were all they had to hold on to. Eric nudged the ship into a nosedive.

      40 feet.

      At thirty feet, the combination of the acceleration and the somewhat poor upper body strength of James proved too much. Fox slipped and started to plummet what one could only hope was a nonlethal fall.

      When the dust settled, Sarah found herself standing on the rubble of the giant tower that she had just climbed on top of. Stumbling around, she wasn't quite sure what the hell she had just experienced… pain? Relief? She didn't know. But she was back in something that looked like reality, choking on Venom's atmosphere… and there didn't seem to be any gunfire going on anymore… Did they win? Suddenly, a loud "OOMPH!" could be heard behind her. Turning around, Fox McCloud was rolling down a hill with both legs bent at odd angles, as he was screaming in agony. A small, sleek ship could be accelerating downward as it was starting to land at the flat plateau at the top of the ship.

      Sarah dashed to Fox's side as Eric tripped over his own two feet in his hurry to get out of the ship. He was already back in human form as he rushed to Fox's side. Eric looked up at Sarah and at the numerous ship crashes, vehicle explosions and fallen bodies that littered Venomian surface. Victory calls could be heard in the far distance, but a nagging thought still tugged at Sarah.

      They called this "winning". Victory or not, due to the casualties… hundreds of good, hard-working furs… and Krystal…

      They had still lost.


	26. Aftermath and home again Chapter X...

Chapter VI

      Shortly after Fox was deemed alive, Eric had collapsed from his injuries and Sarah stumbled to her knees. Technically, victory was theirs, but it was too dearly bought. Venom's army had been smashed to shambles in the battle, but the casualties of dead and wounded on the Cornerian side estimated around 85% of the strike force. The fallen heroes lay on Venom's soil; there wasn't enough ship space to haul the dead back.

      One body did go back to Corneria. The body of the last Cerinian. The Star Fox Fellowship started with six members. It ended with five. Krystal McCloud would be buried during a military ceremony at Dinosaur Planet in two days.

      "B-but…" Sarah cried through muffled tears. She was covered in burn ointment and had bandages covering almost half of her body, but she found it in her to limp to the lieutenant in charge of the now battered strike force. "What about those alters… the revival alters?"

      The lieutenant, who was named Rosa, stopped. She looked long and hard at Sarah before coming up with her answer.

      "The stocks of the materials necessary to power the machine have hit an unexpected shortage. The fact the primary material, the Power Gems, have been getting massive shortages of late is surprising, but we don't even have the resources for a single resurrection. It's unbelievably expensive, Ms. Terminham."

      Sarah sank to her knees. For a brief period she had hoped that she would be able to see Krystal again, who had helped Sarah learn the ropes of this strange new world, but that possibility fell at those grave words.

      The funeral was held at Dinosaur Planet, at the foot of Krazoa Palace. Eric was still in too bad of a shape to be able to attend, but everyone who both knew Krystal and still had full access to all four limbs attended. And seeing as she was queen of Dinosaur Planet, the former was the entire Dinosaur Planet population.

      Tricky was bowing deeply at Krystal's marble coffin. Sarah dissolved into her hands while in a seat in the back row. She couldn't listen to a single word General Pepper said; she just couldn't.

      Another movement to Sarah's left. Looking down, there was a small fuzzball, teetering on two legs.

      "Wha hap'n me now?" Jade garbled, only a single tear staining her cheeks. "Why mommy go away?"

      "She didn't want to," Sarah sobbed, looking at the coffin. "She didn't want to."

      "Buh why?" Jade inquired. "Is mommy ever coming back?"

      "No." At this point, Sarah's voice cracked beyond conversation. What was going to become of Jade now? Fox was always out on active duty, he couldn't always look after Jade. What would become of her? She highly doubted the officer Pepper appointed would put up with her forever. She could only hope it would work out… somehow.

      "Fox." Eric mumbled in his hospital bed.

      "Mmm?" Fox muttered.

      "I'm not your father."

      "I never said you were," Fox said softly. Somehow, they had made a silent agreement between the three of them. The same for Vixy. Eric and Sarah would have to go back to their worlds. Fox had been fighting to accept the fact of his parents death, and even though he could have sworn he saw his dad in the second Lylat War, to be seeing them again, and then lose them again as Eric and Sarah went back to their own home would be too great to bear. Fox realized this, and while it would hurt tremendously, the pain would go into remission.

      Just like it always did.

      Eric told Sarah not to talk to any of the Star Fox World inhabitants for very long. They had to leave. They had accomplished a good, but the alter egoes within would cause too great of a ripple in this dimension.

      "But… why?" Sarah said in between choked back tears.

      "I told you-"

      "No, why can't we come back? I like it here, can't we at least help them out with the aftermath of the battle?"

      "No. We need to go."

      "Wait…" Sarah said.

      "What?"

      "Jade."

      "What about her?"

      "Fox can't keep his occupation and look after Jade with Krystal dead, Eric," Sarah said. "Let me look after her."

      Eric snorted derisively. "Look after her in our universe. And just how do you expect to accomplish that? You start blabbing about what we've done and they'll have us locked up in a padded room with our own personal straightjackets. Come one. It's hopeless."

      "But what do you want me to do?"

      "Nothing. You do what you what you want; I'm not responsible."

      That evening, Sarah went to Dinosaur Planet in the Thunder Hammer. Going up the many floors in Dinosaur Planet Capital City, she went to Jade McCloud's room. Jade looked up at Vixy McCloud, the body Sarah was currently in.

      "Don't worry, Jade. I'll keep you safe."

      They told their respective stories to each of the rest of the Star Fox world, but it all added up to one thing: They were going to leave. They didn't know how long they were going to be, but they needed to head back home for awhile. Eric was heavily bandaged and on crutches, but he wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to at least Falco.

      "See you later, Falco," Eric said with a grimace.

      Falco chuckled in spite of recent events. "I'll be seeing you later. I'll be expecting your arrival is going to be the onset of major stuff going down again, y'hear?"

      Eric laughed. "I hear, Falco. I hear." At that, he pulled off the sunglasses.

      Sarah stayed longer. She stayed to apologize to Fox and ask him if she could look after Jade. Fox agreed, but only if Jade got to come back and visit frequently. Sarah was more than happy to agree, but she couldn't help but shake the feeling they may not be coming back for awhile. She apologized to General Pepper, who had to give Sarah the Captain rank instead of Eric (who they were going to give it to whether he wanted to or not after the fight at Venom), for their hasty exit. Of all of this, Katt and General Pepper seemed to be most opposed to the two humans leaving, but it must have been Sarah's imagination as neither of them said anything.

      Sarah went to her ship as she put a hand on it. She and Eric had seen sights the both of them wanted to cherish forever, and ones that would keep them up after dark, screaming into the night. Brushing her hands along it, she let the sunglasses fall from her face. Until the next time the shades were needed, they would be kept under lock and key.

      Eric stayed at his house. He opened a loose floorboard and hid his new wristband (replacing it with his watch on his wrist), Murasma and the sunglasses under it. He then wondered if it was the right thing, to run from the world that he was now permanently linked to, due to his alter ego. He pondered the things he could have done otherwise. He questioned all the things he had not had time to thoroughly investigate. Oh well. More time for that later, as he could hear his parents coming in through the front door. Until next time.****

_It's easier to run_

_Replacing this pain with something numb_

_It's so much easier to go_

_Than face this pain here all alone_

_Something has been taken from deep inside of me_

_A secret I kept locked away no one can ever see_

_Wounds so deep they never show/ they never go away._

_Like moving pictures in my head/ for years and years they've played_

_If I could change I would/ Take back the pain I would/ Retrace every wrong move that I made I would/ If I could stand up and take the blame I would if I could take all my shame to the grave I would_

_If I could change I would/ Take back the pain I would/ Retrace every wrong move that I made I would/ If I could stand up and take the blame I would if I could take all my shame to the grave_

_It's easier to run_

_Replacing this pain with something numb_

_It's so much easier to go_

_Than face all this pain here all alone_

_Sometimes I remember the darkness of my past_

_Bringing back these memories I wish I didn't have_

_Sometimes I think of letting go and never looking back_

_And never moving forward so there would never be a past_

_If I could change I would/ Take back the pain I would/ Retrace every wrong move that I made I would/ If I could stand up and take the blame I would if I could take all my shame to the grave I would_

_If I could change I would/ Take back the pain I would/ Retrace every wrong move that I made I would/ If I could stand up and take the blame I would if I could take all my shame to the grave_

_Just washing it aside_

_All of the helplessness inside_

_Pretending I don't feel misplaced_

_Is so much easier than change_

_It's easier to run_

_Replacing this pain with something numb_

_It's so much easier to run_

_Than face all this pain here on my own_

_It's easier to run_

_(If I could change I would/ Take back the pain I would/ Retrace every wrong move that I made I would)_

_It's easier to go_

_(If I could change I would/ Take back the pain I would/ Retrace every wrong move that I made I would/ If I could take all my shame/ To the grave)_

Sarah took one of her combination lock kid safes, opened it and put her wristband and sunglasses into the safe, and then took it out into the backyard with a shovel and started digging a hole. She probably was digging it deeper than she needed for the small safe, but she didn't care. She dropped it and buried it. Just in case she needed it again, she marked the spot with a cross of stones. This way, she could claim it was a place to worship if her parents got suspicious. 

She didn't want to go back, but she had to keep her promise to Fox. It was her faith to uphold her word, so every now and then she'd have to dig it up, but she hoped that it would be awhile before it would get to that. She put Beamstriker and the quiver under the religious paraphernalia that she knew her parents would never go through, and then went to her room to comfort Jade. She didn't know what she would do in the future, but all that she could do now is wait and hope.

      Wait and hope.

_Memories consume_

_Like opening the wound_

_I'm picking me apart again_

_You all assume_

_I'm safe here in my room_

_(Unless I try to start again)_

_I don't want to be the one_

_The battles always choose_

_'Cause inside I realize_

_That I'm the one confused_

_I don't know what's worth fighting for_

_Or why I have to scream_

_I don't know why I instigate_

_And say what I don't mean_

_I don't know how I got this way_

_I know it's not alright_

_So I'm breaking the habit_

_Tonight_

_Clutching my cure_

_I tightly lock the door_

_I try to catch my breath again_

_I hurt much more_

_Than anytime before_

_I had no options left again_

_I don't want to be the one_

_The battles always choose_

_'Cause inside I realize_

_That I'm the one confused_

_I don't know what's worth fighting for_

_Or why I have to scream_

_I don't know why I instigate and say what I don't mean_

_I don't know how I got this way_

_I'll never be alright_

_So I'm breaking the habit_

_I'm breaking the habit_

_Tonight_

_I'll paint it on the walls_

_'Cause I'm the one at fault_

_I'll never fight again_

_And this is how it ends_

_I don't know what's worth fighting for_

_Or why I have to scream_

_But now I have some clarity_

_To show you what I mean_

_I don't know how I got this way_

_I'll never be alright_

_So I'm breaking the habit_

_I'm breaking the habit_

_I'm breaking the habit_

_Tonight._

**_The End_**


	27. Epilogue: Doomed Destiny

Epilogue

      It had been almost three years since that day.

      The battle at what was now known as Andross' Tower, after the secret of the invisible building leaked out. And Sergeant Major Tsarina Firebrand and her small band of soldiers were being sent in to make sure that it was staying dormant. There were rumors that Venom was doing something, and then the cases of perfectly rational people leading uprisings against Corneria, and Tsarina was being sent to check on what Venom was doing.

      But when she arrived there, all was quiet. Not a single creature roamed on Venom's surface. Not a single vehicle was in sight. Was Venom terrified of anything that came through the atmosphere? No. No way in hell, the battle three years ago didn't do THAT much damage, not by a long shot. And a lot can happen in three years. It was _too_ quiet.

      Then she heard it over the radio. "Surrender your squadron immediately. This comes from the command of Rosemary Irrera."

      The name vaguely rang a bell in Tsarina's mind. Either way, she wasn't going to back down.

      "Pilots, stand ready. I don't know what you think you're doing, Rosemary, but you're not going about it the right way. And if it's a fight you want, then it's a fight that you'll get.

      "Don't say we didn't warn you, Sergeant Firebrand. Open fire!"

      "Fire at will!" Tsarina replied quickly. Lasers were exchanged, but then there was a shimmer nearby. An impossibly big mothership was in the midst of Rosemary's fighters. In one hefty blast, it obliterated the majority of Tsarina's fighters.

      With a battered ally breaking off the attack and Tsarina left alone with one wing, her world was bleak. Her life flashed before her eyes as she realized where she remembered the name Rosemary Irrerra before.

      "…Traitor!" Tsarina gasped.

      "Embrace The End."

      And Sergeant Major Tsarina Firebrand of Titania Special Forces knew no more.


	28. Afterward

Wow. I can't believe that this is it, the first installment of Total Fantasy is finally freaking OVER. I never thought I'd make it. One year, one hundred and nineteen pages, sixty-six thousand, seven-hundred and fifty-three words, three-hundred six thousand, eighty-eight characters, one thousand, eight-hundred and eighty paragraphs, and six thousand, six hundred and ninety five lines later, I'm feeling pretty full of myself. This has been a fun experiment in writing fantasy, and I hope that you enjoyed it all. There won't be any more adjustments to this story (unless you find a grammar error, then by all means submit it in and I'll take a look at it), but this will give me time for two more writing projects: an SSBM FAQ (which got lost in my computer when it broke, so I have to start over again… D'oh!) and, the long-awaited sequel. How 'bout THEM apples! This has been a very fun trip, and it'll probably turn into a lifelong project, seeing as it's easy to get ideas for my favorite hero(ine). Fits that Eric and Sarah are my favorite as I made them and it's a biased judgment, but still.

      Anyway, to the sequel. And keep comments and suggestions coming on how to improve my writing style, either in a review or to vidgameinggod@earthlink.net. I look forward to hearing from you!

      One last thing. Please don't put any overt spoilers in the reviews. I noticed it in KKG's latest review, and there are people who read reviews first, and I don't want people to have some of the story ruined for them. I won't call the mods on you or anything, I'll just get very, very upset. The I'll go on a homicidal rampage on my PS2, killing thousands of innocent pixels, and you don't want that, do you?

      To the sequel. Oh yeah, btw: TF2 is going to be First-Person (another writing experiment) and I'm asking you a question: Do you want it to be written from _Eric's_ point of view, or _Sarah's_? Personally, I don't mind, but each one will see things the other won't, so it'll be slightly different. Also, Quiksilver is going to do EOR2 in the same vein; the two stories will intertwine and Quik's writing his from Jack Chaykin's point of view, so you'll also want to check that story out as well. The character (Eric or Sarah) with the most votes by the time I start will be the character I'm writing it in POV, so act sharp!

TGK

This fic is dedicated to the Pepsi Company. I never would have made it without your most caffeinated drink, Mountain Dew. To Pepsi!


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